Plasma radio emission from inhomogeneous collisional plasma of a flaring loop

Abstract

The evolution of a solar flare accelerated non-thermal electron population and associated plasma emission is considered in collisional inhomogeneous plasma. Non-thermal electrons collisionally evolve to become unstable and generate Langmuir waves, which may lead to intense radio emission. We self-consistently simulated the collisional relaxation of electrons, wave-particle interactions, and non-linear Langmuir wave evolution in plasma with density fluctuations. Additionally, we simulated the scattering, decay, and coalescence of the Langmuir waves which produce radio emission at the fundamental or the harmonic of the plasma frequency, using an angle-averaged emission model. Long-wavelength density fluctuations, such as are observed in the corona, are seen to strongly suppress the levels of radio emission, meaning that a high level of Langmuir waves can be present without visible radio emission. Additionally, in homogeneous plasma, the emission shows time and frequency variations that could be smoothed out by density inhomogeneities. © ESO, 2014.