Multi-dimensional Vlasov simulations on trapping-induced sidebands of Langmuir waves

TL;DR

This study uses two-dimensional Vlasov simulations to analyze how trapping-induced sidebands affect Langmuir wave evolution, revealing the importance of oblique sidebands and nonlinear effects in plasma turbulence.

Contribution

It demonstrates the role of oblique sidebands as decay channels and models their growth using a nonlinear Schrödinger equation with non-Maxwellian Landau damping.

Findings

Oblique sidebands are significant decay channels.

Vortex merging leads to turbulence.

Nonlinear Schrödinger model agrees qualitatively with simulations.

Abstract

Temporal evolution of Langmuir waves is presented with two-dimensional electrostatic Vlasov simulations. In a mutiwavelength system, trapped electrons can generate sidebands including longitudinal, transverse and oblique sidebands. We demonstrated that oblique sidebands are important decay channels of Langmuir waves, and the growth rate of oblique sideband is smaller than the longitudinal sideband but higher than the transverse sideband. Bump-on-tailtype distribution function is formed because of the growth of sidebands, leading to a nonlinear growth of sidebands. When the amplitudes of sidebands are comparable with that of Langmuir wave, vortex merging occurs following the broadening of longitudinal and transverse wavenumbers, and finally the system is developed into a turbulent state. In addition, the growth of sidebands can be depicted by the nonlinear Schr\"odinger model (Dewar-Rose-Yin (DRY) model) with non-Maxwellian Landau dampings. It shows the significance of particle-trapping induced nonlinear frequency shift in the evolution and qualitative agreement with Vlasov simulations