7 research outputs found
Nonintegrable Interaction of Ion-Acoustic and Electromagnetic Waves in a Plasma
In this paper we re-examine the one-dimensional interaction of
electromagnetic and ion acoustic waves in a plasma. Our model is similar to one
solved by Rao et al. (Phys. Fluids, vol. 26, 2488 (1983)) under a number of
analytical approximations. Here we perform a numerical investigation to examine
the stability of the model. We find that for slightly over dense plasmas, the
propagation of stable solitary modes can occur in an adiabatic regime where the
ion acoustic electric field potential is enslaved to the electromagnetic field
of a laser. But if the laser intensity or plasma density increases or the laser
frequency decreases, the adiabatic regime loses stability via a transition to
chaos. New asymptotic states are attained when the adiabatic regime no longer
exists. In these new states, the plasma becomes rarefied, and the laser field
tends to behave like a vacuum field.Comment: 19 pages, REVTeX, 6 ps figures, accepted for publication in Phys.
Rev.