Electromagnetic emission from plasma with counter-streaming electron beams in the regime of oblique instability dominance

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the generation of electromagnetic emission near the second harmonic of the plasma frequency induced by pairs of counter-propagating electron beams. Such systems can naturally occur in cosmic plasmas when particle acceleration regions are closely spaced, and they can also be implemented in a laboratory device. We specifically focus on the regime where the oblique beam–plasma instability dominates. The emission mechanism relies on the coalescence of counter-propagating plasma waves with different transverse structures. It has been demonstrated that the parameters of the system necessary for efficient radiation generation can be determined using the exact linear theory of beam–plasma instability. Through particle-in-cell numerical simulations, we show that a high beam-to-radiation conversion efficiency can be achieved when the beams excite small-scale oblique plasma oscillations. Importantly, we find that the efficiency and spectral characteristics of the radiation are not dependent on the thickness of the beams. We explore two scenarios involving pairs of symmetric beams: one with relativistic beams having a directed velocity of vb=0.9c and another with sub-relativistic beams at vb=0.7c. Additionally, we consider the injection of two beams with different velocities. In all cases considered, the beam-to-radiation power conversion efficiency reaches a level of a few percent, a sufficiently high value for beam–plasma systems.