Warm Topological Langmuir Cyclotron Wave

TL;DR

This paper predicts and numerically identifies a novel topological wave mode in warm magnetized plasmas, arising from finite-temperature effects and Weyl-point degeneracy, with potential relevance to laboratory plasma experiments.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of a warm topological Langmuir-cyclotron wave resulting from finite-temperature effects and Weyl-point degeneracy in magnetized plasmas, supported by numerical evidence.

Findings

Discovery of a Weyl-point degeneracy at finite temperature in plasma waves.

Identification of a new topological wave mode absent in cold plasma.

Relevance of the mode to experimental plasma devices like LAPD.

Abstract

Finite-temperature effects in magnetized electron plasmas create a new Weyl-point degeneracy between the warm Langmuir and right-circularly polarized waves. The associated topological charge at this warm Weyl point is found to be 1, which, by the index theorem, predicts a gap-traversing topological edge mode. Solving the full warm-fluid eigenmode problem In a 1D inhomogeneous equilibrium, we numerically identify this anticipated mode as the warm topological Langmuir-cyclotron wave, which is absent in the cold limit and occurs in a parameter regime relevant to the LArge Plasma Device (LAPD) at UCLA.