Features of the Dynamic Spectrum of Signals Generated by a Wide-Aperture Electron Beam in a Large-Scale Magnetized Plasma

Abstract

Electromagnetic signals generated by a wide-aperture electron beam in the laboratory plasma under conditions limitedly modeling the interaction between waves and particles in the near-Earth plasma have been studied at the large-scale Krot device. The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation includes whistler noise, which is presumably due to the current instability, and discrete (narrowband) signals near harmonics of the electron cyclotron and plasma frequencies. It has been shown that narrowband signals with a positive frequency drift that are observed at the injection of the electron beam are caused by nonstationary variations of the plasma density due to an additional ionization of a neutral gas by accelerated electrons. These effects should be taken into account to interpret nonconventional forms of the dynamic spectrum in various laboratory experiments simulating processes in the Earth’s ionosphere and magnetosphere.