On some peculiarities of electric field pulse propagation in electron Maxwellian plasma and its back response

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electric field pulses propagate in Maxwellian plasma slabs, revealing unique velocity behaviors and weak back responses depending on pulse orientation and mode, advancing understanding of plasma wave dynamics.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of electric field pulse propagation in plasma, highlighting peculiar velocities and back responses for different pulse types and modes.

Findings

Longitudinal pulses have distinct velocities from harmonic waves and no back response.

Transverse pulses exhibit bimodal propagation with fast and slow signals.

Weak echo responses occur with a time delay near the formation zone.

Abstract

In the spirit of continued study of general plasma wave properties we investigated the boundary problem with the simplest form of electric field pulse at the edge x=0 of half-infinite uniform plasma slab with Maxwellian electron distribution function. In the case of longitudinal electric field pulse its traveling velocity is essentially other than in the case of harmonic waves; there is also no back response. In the case of transverse field pulse there takes place the bimodal propagation rate of the non-damping fast pulse signal and non-damping weak slow sign reversed pulse signals; some very weak response (echo) arises with a time delay in the near coordinate zone of formation of the asymptotical regime.