Journal of Plasma Physics

Table of Contents - 1972 - Volume 8, Issue 02  

Research Article

Cyclotron resonance in an inhomogeneous plasma†

M. J. Lairda1

a1 Department of Mathematics, King's College, London

Abstract

The motion of a charged particle in a transverse wave of varying amplitude, wavelength and phase speed βp, propagating along a uniform magnetic field, together with a longitudinal electric field, is investigated. The equations of motion, in Hamiltonian form, are reduced to a system with two degrees of freedom in which integrable cases appear naturally. It is shown that particles may be locked in resonance with the wave, and expressions are found for the energy and momentum of such particles in terms of βp.

(Received May 25 1972)

Footnotes

† Paper presented at the Conference ‘Plasma waves, instabilities and interactions’, Spåtind, Norway, April 1972.