Electromagnetic Radiation From Double Layers in Laboratory and in Space

Details Electromagnetic Radiation From Double Layers in Laboratory and in Space Electromagnetic Radiation From Double Layers in Laboratory and in Space

May 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agusmsm42a..04k&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2004, abstract #SM42A-04

Physics

2451 Particle Acceleration, 2483 Wave/Particle Interactions, 2712 Electric Fields (2411), 7815 Electrostatic Structures, 7831 Laboratory Studies

Scientific paper

First results are reported from a project to study by experiments and theory a potentially important mechanism for electromagnetic radiation from space, Double Layer Radiation (DLR). This type of radiation is proposed to come from DL-associated, spatially localized high frequency (hf) spikes [Gunell et al.,1996; McFarland and Wong,1998] which are driven by the electron beam on the high-potential side of the double layer. It is known, but only qualitatively, from laboratory experiments that double layers radiate in the electromagnetic spectrum. These laboratory experiments were made in the 1990's by Volwerk and Lindberg using magnetic pickup coils to measure the electromagnetic radiation from double layers in mercury plasma. The spectrum was found to contain characteristic peaks at the electron gyrofrequency, electron plasma frequency, combinations of the two, and frequencies that might be apparatus-dependent. No clear theoretical model emerged from these investigations, and no absolute calibration of the radiation strength could be obtained. The quantitative evaluation of these measurements is complicated because they were made in the near field of the radiating structure and in the vicinity of conducting laboratory hardware that distorts the field. The situation is further complicated because the localized electrostatic wavelengths (approx. 1 cm) can be relatively small compared to the emitted electromagnetic wavelengths (e.g. 50 cm at 600 MHz, a typical plasma frequency). The alternate explanation, that the radiation might arise directly from the acceleration experienced by single charged particles in the double layer, was outlined by Kuijpers et al. in 1997, but the details of the theory were not provided. In 1986, Borovsky proposed a DLR mechanism for explaining the radiation from current-carrying arms (up to 10E17 amperes) of double radio galaxies. The electromagnetic radiation mechanism was compared to that of a free-electron laser but he described it only schematically. We intend to investigate both the statistical occurrence of hf spikes and the influence of the DL-field-aligned density profile on hf-spike formation in an attempt to interrelate the roles of self-organization of the density profile, ionization and loss, and the ponderomotive force of the hf spike.

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