On the breaking of a plasma wave in a thermal plasma: II. Electromagnetic wave interaction with the breaking plasma wave

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electromagnetic waves interact with large amplitude plasma waves near the wavebreaking limit, revealing that density singularities cause significant reflection effects.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of the density singularity structure and its impact on electromagnetic wave reflection in relativistic plasma waves.

Findings

Density singularities cause non-negligible wave reflection

Refraction coefficient exhibits coordinate-dependent discontinuities

Above-barrier reflection is significant near wavebreaking

Abstract

The structure of the density singularity formed in a relativistically large amplitude plasma wave close to the wavebreaking limit leads to a refraction coefficient which has a coordinate dependence with discontinuous derivatives. This results in a non-exponentially small above-barrier reflection of an electromagnetic wave interacting with the nonlinear plasma wave.