Growth of the Langmuir cavity eigenmodes in the solar wind

Abstract

The Langmuir waves in the solar wind are known to be at the origin of many types of solar radio emissions, in particular solar type II and type III radio bursts. In situ observations have shown that the largest amplitude Langmuir waves often appear as localized wave packets. Several models have been proposed to explain this localization of the waves, such as kinetic localization, nonlinear wave-wave processes, or eigenmode formation. The latter theory states that the wave packets are eigenmodes of density cavities generated by background turbulence. In the present paper we investigate the wave growth of the localized Langmuir eigenmodes. Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.