ELECTRON ACCELERATION IN THE PRESENCE OF PARAMETRIC HEATING OF A BOUNDED LAYER OF PLASMA.

The authors consider the acceleration of superthermal electrons by parametric turbulence in a bounded layer of plasma. They show that an essential role is played by the effects of turbulent scattering of the superthermal particles out of the interaction region: these effects are due to the process of stochastic motion of the electrons in the course of interaction with the plasma turbulence (which is not one-dimensional). These effects lead to a build-up of superthermal particles in the interaction region, and they lead to a significant increase in the efficiency of acceleration. The authors use the theory they have developed to explain the observed effects of electron acceleration in experiments which have to do with parametric heating of the ionosphere.