Self-modulation of nonlinear waves in a weakly magnetized relativistic electron-positron plasma with temperature

Abstract

We develop a nonlinear theory for self-modulation of a circularly polarized electromagnetic wave in a relativistic hot weakly magnetized electron-positron plasma. The case of parallel propagation along an ambient magnetic field is considered. A nonlinear Schrödinger equation is derived for the complex wave amplitude of a selfmodulated wave packet. We show that the maximum growth rate of the modulational instability decreases as the temperature of the pair plasma increases. Depending on the initial conditions, the unstable wave envelope can evolve nonlinearly to either periodic wave trains or solitary waves. This theory has application to high-energy astrophysics and high-power laser physics.

Self-modulation of nonlinear Alfvén waves in a strongly magnetized relativistic electron-positron plasma

“…Based on this formalism, the parametric decays [39] of these circularly polarized electromagnetic waves were studied. For the case of a weakly magnetized hot pair plasma in the electromagnetic branch the self-modulation of these waves was also analyzed and a nonlinear wave equation was derived, which produces a propagating wave train or a soliton [40]. In Ref.…”

Nonlinear interaction of intense laser pulses and an inhomogeneous electron-positron-ion plasma

“…These include relativistic optical guiding, harmonic excitation, wake-field generation, laser pulse frequency shifting, pulse compression, and particle acceleration. Especially, the nonlinear dynamics of intense laser pulses in electron-positron-ion (e-p-i) plasma have been received a great deal of attention [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Light beam compression, focusing, and trapping in self-created density holes, light beam filamentation, stable localized solutions and selfmodulational instability in e-p-i plasmas are discussed.…”

“…Recently, e-p plasma is produced in laboratory by irradiating a solid gold target with an intense picosecond laser pulse [15][16][17]. The results show that the positron density can up to 10 16 cm −3 . It also predicts that, with the increasing performance of high-energy ultra-short laser pulses, a high-density, up to 10 18 cm −3 , relativistic pairplasma is achievable.…”

Chaotic saddles in nonlinear modulational interactions in a plasma

“…Recently, Asenjo et al 10 derived a NLS equation to describe the self-modulation of nonlinear waves in a hot magnetized relativistic electron-positron plasma.…”