Nontrapping arrest of Langmuir wave damping near the threshold amplitude.

Evolution of a Langmuir wave is studied numerically for finite amplitudes slightly above the threshold which separates damping from nondamping cases. Arrest of linear damping is found to be a second-order effect due to ballistic evolution of perturbations, resonant power transfer between field and particles, and organization of phase space into a positive slope for the average distribution function f(av) around the resonant wave phase speed nu(ph). Near the threshold trapping in the wave potential does not arrest damping or saturate the subsequent growth phase.