Nonlinear propagation of coherent electromagnetic waves in a dense magnetized plasma

P. K. Shukla, B. Eliasson, L. Stenflo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present an investigation of the nonlinear propagation of high-frequency coherent electromagnetic waves in a uniform quantum magnetoplasma. Specifically, we consider nonlinear couplings of right-hand circularly polarized electromagnetic-electron-cyclotron (CPEM-EC) waves with dispersive shear Alfvén (DSA) and dispersive compressional Alfvén (DCA) perturbations in plasmas composed of degenerate electron fluids and non-degenerate ion fluids. Such interactions lead to amplitude modulation of the CPEM-EC wave packets, the dynamics of which is governed by a three-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) with the frequency shift arising from the relativistic electron mass increase in the CPEM-EC fields and density perturbations associated with the DSA and DCA perturbations. Accounting for the electromagnetic and quantum forces, we derive the evolution equation for the DSA and DCA waves in the presence of the magnetic field-aligned ponderomotive force of the CPEM-EC waves. The NLSE and the driven DSA and DCA equations are then used to investigate the modulational instability. The relevance of our investigation to laser-plasma interaction experiments and the cores of white dwarf stars is pointed out.
Original languageEnglish
Article number072302
Number of pages7
JournalPhysics of Plasmas
Volume19
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Jul 2012

Keywords

  • electromagnetic waves
  • quantum plasma
  • nonlinear couplings
  • CPEM-EC

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