Kinetic plasma waves carrying orbital angular momentum.

Blackman, D R; Nuter, R; Korneev, Ph; Tikhonchuk, V T · Phys Rev E · 2019

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The structure of Langmuir plasma waves carrying a finite orbital angular momentum is revised in the paraxial approximation. It is shown that the kinetic effects related to higher-order momenta of the electron distribution function lead to coupling of Laguerre-Gaussian modes and result in a modification of the wave dispersion and damping. The theoretical analysis is compared to the three-dimensional particle-in-cell numerical simulations for a mode with orbital momentum l=2. It is demonstrated that propagation of such a plasma wave is accompanied with generation of quasistatic axial and azimuthal magnetic fields which result from the orbital and longitudinal momenta transported with the wave, respectively.