A new mechanism is suggested for the anomalous relaxation of electrons in a disturbed plasma in which velocity distribution function of electrons fluctuates around some smooth function. The analysis of the Nyguist diagram, which is a plotas a function of ω/k of real and imaginary parts of w= (ω
2p/k
2) ε (k, ω), where ε (k, ω) is the dielectric constant, shows that as we go to smaller k values the diagram crosses the origin of the complex w-plane (zeros of ε (k, ω) at a number of points, each crossing gioing a possible value of ω/k and hence the dispersion relation for a possible wave mode in the medium. That these modes have acoustic type dispersion relation is easily seen by the observation of the diagram.
The energy loss of a fast electron incident on our disturbed plasma will be greatly increased due to excitation of these extra modes, arising from the fluctuation, in addition to the usual loss associated with plasmon excitation. The fluctuation in the velocity distribution function may be due, either to external causes, or to runaway electrons on some other cooperative phenomena in the medium.
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