Dynamics of Langmuir wave decay in two dimensions

The present paper reports on the first two-dimensional (2D) self-consistent solution of weak turbulence equations describing the evolution of electron-beam-plasma interaction in which quasilinear as well as nonlinear three-wave decay processes are taken into account. It is found that the 2D Langmuir wave decay processes lead to the formation of a quasicircular ring spectrum in wave number space. It is also seen that the 2D ring-spectrum of Langmuir turbulence leads to a tendency to isotropic heating of the electrons. These findings contain some important ramifications. First, in the literature, isotropization of energetic electrons, detected in the solar wind for instance, is usually attributed to pitch-angle scattering. The present finding constitutes an alternative mechanism, whose efficiency for other parametric regimes has to be investigated. Second, when projected onto the one-dimensional (1D) space, the 2D ring spectrum may give a false impression of Langmuir waves inverse cascading to longer wavelength regime, when in reality, the wavelength of the turbulence does not change at all but only the wave propagation angle changes. Although the present analysis excludes the induced scattering, which is another process potentially responsible for the inverse cascade, the present finding at least calls for an investigation into the relative efficacy of the inverse-cascading process in 1D vs 2D. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.