Landau Damping of Langmuir Waves: An Alternative Derivation

Abstract

In this paper, a discussion of the Landau damping of Langmuir waves is presented together with a simple derivation which does not require the application of methods of complex analysis. A general dispersion relation is derived systematically which corresponds to a nonlinear equation. The latter equation is solved numerically but asymptotic limits are also discussed.

Keywords

• Langmuir waves
• Landau damping
• particle wave interactions