English

A laser-plasma interaction experiment for solar burst studies

Plasma Physics 2020-04-14 v1

Abstract

A new experimental platform based on laser-plasma interaction is proposed to explore the fundamental processes of wave coupling at the origin of interplanetary radio emissions. It is applied to the study of electromagnetic (EM) emission at twice the plasma frequency (2ωp2\omega_p) observed during solar bursts and thought to result from the coalescence of two Langmuir waves (LWs). In the interplanetary medium, the first LW is excited by electron beams, while the second is generated by electrostatic decay of Langmuir waves. In the present experiment, instead of an electron beam, an energetic laser propagating through a plasma excites the primary LW, with characteristics close to those at near-Earth orbit. The EM radiation at 2ωp2\omega_p is observed at different angles. Its intensity, spectral evolution and polarization confirm the LW-coalescence scenario.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2003.07747,
  title  = {A laser-plasma interaction experiment for solar burst studies},
  author = {J. -R. Marquès and C. Briand and F. Amiranoff and S. Depierreux and M. Grech and L. Lancia and F. Pérez and A. Sgattoni and T. Vinci and C. Riconda},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.07747},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett

R2 v1 2026-06-23T14:17:29.939Z