Laboratory Measurements of Electrostatic Solitary Structures Generated by Beam Injection

Bertrand Lefebvre, Li-Jen Chen, Walter Gekelman, Paul Kintner, Jolene Pickett, Patrick Pribyl, Stephen Vincena, Franklin Chiang, and Jack Judy
Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 115001 – Published 7 September 2010

Abstract

Electrostatic solitary structures are generated by injection of a suprathermal electron beam parallel to the magnetic field in a laboratory plasma. Electric microprobes with tips smaller than the Debye length (λDe) enabled the measurement of positive potential pulses with half-widths 4 to 25λDe and velocities 1 to 3 times the background electron thermal speed. Nonlinear wave packets of similar velocities and scales are also observed, indicating that the two descend from the same mode which is consistent with the electrostatic whistler mode and result from an instability likely to be driven by field-aligned currents.

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  • Received 2 February 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.115001

© 2010 The American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Bertrand Lefebvre1,*, Li-Jen Chen1, Walter Gekelman2, Paul Kintner3, Jolene Pickett4, Patrick Pribyl2, Stephen Vincena2, Franklin Chiang5, and Jack Judy5

  • 1Space Science Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824, USA
  • 2Basic Plasma Science Facility, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
  • 3School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
  • 4Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
  • 5Electrical Engineering Department, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA

  • *bertrand.lefebvre@unh.edu

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Vol. 105, Iss. 11 — 10 September 2010

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