On the local power dissipation of h.f. waves in hot inhomogeneous plasmas

Abstract

In a medium with spatial dispersion the power P_abs dissipated per unit volume by an electro-magnetic wave differs from (J.E) by the divergence of a vector which is interpreted as the correction delta S_kin to the Poynting flux due to the coherent particle motion in the field. The authors obtain expressions for P_abs and delta S_kin in hot, inhomogeneous, weakly collisional plasmas by evaluating the time-averaged rate of change of the total kinetic energy density of charged particles, generalizing a method suggested by McVey et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. vol.55, p.507, 1985). The authors prove that these expressions are consistent with the time averaged Poynting theorem for Maxwell equations. By specializing them to uniform and plane-stratified geometries, they derive some interesting properties of wave-plasma energy exchanges, and they check that the well known expressions for P_abs and delta S_kin in the case of a plane wave propagating in an infinite homogeneous plasma are recovered in the appropriate limit.