Electromagnetic Emission Produced by Three-wave Interactions in a Plasma with Continiously Injected Counterstreaming Electron Beams

TL;DR

This study uses particle-in-cell simulations to demonstrate that counter-streaming electron beams in plasma can significantly enhance electromagnetic emissions at the second harmonic of the plasma frequency through three-wave interactions, potentially explaining solar radio bursts.

Contribution

The paper shows that open boundary conditions and three-wave interactions in counter-streaming electron beams can increase electromagnetic emission efficiency to a few percent, advancing understanding of solar radio burst mechanisms.

Findings

Efficiency of beam-to-radiation conversion can reach a few percent.

Three-wave interactions near the second harmonic are crucial for enhanced emissions.

Open boundary conditions significantly increase emission efficiency.

Abstract

Three-wave interactions between Langmuir and electromagnetic waves in plasma with unstable electron flows are believed to be the main cause for type II and III solar radio emissions. The narrow band of type II bursts requires to assume that this radiation is generated in some local regions of shock fronts traveling in the solar corona, where the specific conditions for the enhancement of electromagnetic emissions near the plasma frequency harmonics are created. The reason for such enhancement at the second harmonic may be the formation of counter-streaming electron beams. There are different opinions in literature on whether the second harmonic electromagnetic emission in the presence of an additional beam can be efficient enough to markedly dominate emissions produced by a single beam. In the present paper, we carry out particle-in-cell simulations of the collision of two symmetric electron beams in plasma with open boundary conditions and show that the efficiency of beam-to-radiation power conversion can be significantly increased compared to models with periodic boundary conditions and reach the level of a few percent if three-wave interactions with electromagnetic waves near the second harmonic of the plasma frequency becomes available for the most unstable oblique beam driven modes.