Role of Thermal Fluctuations in Parametric Instabilities of Circularly Polarized Electromagnetic Waves in Relativistic Electron-Positron Plasmas

English Abstract:

The dispersive properties of circularly polarized electromagnetic waves propagating along a background magnetic field are studied in a relativistic electron-positron plasma, taking into account the presence of spontaneous thermal fluctuations. We study the nature of the nonlinear couplings depending of the position of the pump wavenumber relative to the region where the thermal fluctuation level is important. Such studies may be relevant to understand the nonlinear wave
propagation and turbulence generation in relativistic astrophysical plasmas, and shed some light about the physics of atmosphere [1] and solar flare
plasmas [2].

[1] E. Tandberg-Hansen and A. G. Emslie, The Physics of Solar Flares (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988), p. 124.

[2] B. Kozlovsky, R. J. Murphy, and G. H. Share, Astrophys. J. 604, 892 (2004).