Kinetic Interaction between an Electron Flow with a Wide Velocity Spread and a Short-Adjusted Slipping Wave Pulse at the Cherenkov Resonance

Abstract

In this study, kinetic interaction at the Cherenkov resonance between an electromagnetic wave pulse and a flow of electrons possessing a wide velocity spread at the scale of the characteristic range of the resonant electron wave interaction is considered. Due to the absence of a distribution function slope in the range of velocities corresponding to the electron wave’s resonance, an electron’s flow is a nearly stable media from the point of view of its interaction with a long enough wave pulse. In this paper, we explain our findings on the process of electron interaction with potential relief where the wave pulse is so short that the characteristic scale of the wave amplitude’s inhomogeneity and the profile of the potential relief is comparable to the wavelength. We show that if an appropriate slippage between the phase and group velocities of the wave is provided, then the reflection process of particles from “fast” and “slow” close-to-resonance velocity fractions becomes non-symmetrical. This can provide a mechanism of amplification of short intensive wave pulses with electron flows with very large velocity spreads.

Keywords

• wave–particle interaction
• radiation mechanism
• plasma