Dynamics of Two-dimensional Type III Electron Beams in Randomly Inhomogeneous Solar Wind Plasmas

Abstract

Abstract The dynamics of a type III electron beam generating Langmuir wave turbulence and subsequent electromagnetic emissions is studied owing to two-dimensional Particle-In-Cell simulations performed in both homogeneous and randomly inhomogeneous solar wind plasmas. Important differences in the beam dynamics are highlighted between both cases, due to Langmuir waves’ transformations on the density fluctuations. This paper studies the dynamics of a weak beam interacting with Langmuir wave turbulence scattered by initially applied plasma density fluctuations, in terms of particle acceleration, non-Gaussian suprathermal electron tails, broadening and relaxation of velocity distributions, beam density localization, and electron diffusion or trapping in a turbulent plasma. Density fluctuations are the cause of beam acceleration during its relaxation stage; after Langmuir wave saturation, it gains up to half the energy lost during deceleration while wave turbulence is damping, exhibiting asymptotically a suprathermal tail of electrons carrying around 30% of its initial kinetic energy. Some important features observed for one-dimensional beams exciting Langmuir wave turbulence in randomly inhomogeneous plasmas can be recovered.