A new general form of the dispersion relation for electrostatic Bernstein waves in ultra-relativistic pair plasmas, characterized by a−1 = kBT/(mec) 1, is derived in this paper. The parameter Sp = a 0/ωp, where 0 is the rest cyclotron frequency for electrons or positrons and ωp is the electron (or positron) plasma frequency, plays a crucial role in characterizing these waves. In particular, Sp ...

An experimental study of ion heating by beating electrostatic ion cyclotron (EIC) waves in a magnetized, rf-sustained plasma has been performed in order to explore an ion acceleration mechanism that was predicted theoretically. Ion heating up to 35% was observed in the presence of electrostatic waves excited by a twoplate antenna. It was found that ion-neutral collisions significantly alter dis...

Plasma can support a great variety of wave motion. Both high frequency and low frequency, electromagnetic and electrostatic waves may propagate in plasma. The primary emphasis has been placed on the study of electrostatic waves because the ease with which such waves may be excited and detected and because the collisionless damping of waves predicted by Landau can be conveniently studied. In thi...

By scattering particles and causing dissipation, waves in a collisionless shock play a role similar to collisions in an ordinary gas. In describing the waves and instability that occur near a shock three regions must be considered: (1) the transition region, (2) the upstream region, and (3) the downstream region. The transition region is usually characterized by an abrupt broadband burst of ele...

Electron acceleration mechanism at high Mach number collisionless shocks propagating in a weakly magnetized medium is investigated by a self-consistent two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. Simulation results show that strong electrostatic waves are excited via the electron-ion electrostatic two-stream instability at the leading edge of the shock transition region as in the case of earli...