Analysis of the Cyclotron Radiation from Relativistic Electrons Interacting with a Radio-frequency Electromagnetic Wave

The emission of electromagnetic radiation from charged particles spiraling around magnetic fields is an important effect in astrophysical and laboratory plasmas. In theoretical modeling, issues still not fully resolved are, among others, the inclusion of the recoil force on the relativistic electron motion and the detailed computation of the radiation power spectrum. In this paper, the cyclotron radiation emitted during the nonlinear interaction of relativistic electrons with a plane electromagnetic wave in a uniform magnetic field is examined, by analyzing the radiated power in both time and frequency domain. The dynamics of the instantaneous radiation and the emitted power spectrum from one particle, as well as from monoenergetic electron ensembles (towards a picture of the radiation properties independent of the initial conditions) is thoroughly studied. The analysis is performed for several values of the wave amplitude, focusing near the threshold for the onset of nonlinear chaos, in order to determine the alteration of the radiation in the transition from regular to chaotic motion.