Nonlinear transformation of electromagnetic waves in suddenly created cold magnetized plasma: Longitudinal propagation

The transformation of a circularly polarized electromagnetic source wave in a suddenly created cold magnetized and weakly nonlinear plasma is considered. For the case of longitudinal propagation (a source wave propagating along an external static magnetic field) when the ion motion is neglected, a circularly polarized source wave splits into four longitudinal oscillating modes. In the case of a linearly polarized source wave due to the interaction between its right and left circularly polarized components additional stationary and traveling electron wave modes are created. Amplitude distributions of all created modes are determined in closed form and presented in corresponding diagrams for different values of source wave and electron cyclotron frequencies. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.