Maser-beam instability of Bernstein waves

Abstract

The present study constitutes a continuation and improvement of the preceding work by Yoon et al. [J. Geophys. Res. 104, 19801 (1999)]. In the present discussion, an instability of Bernstein waves excited by a beam of energetic electrons is investigated. Special attention is paid to the regime where the ratio of plasma frequency, vpe , to electron gyrofrequency, Ve , is sufficiently higher than unity. An approximate but fairly accurate scheme is introduced to deal with the situation dictated by the condition, vpe 2 /Ve 2e1. The present investigation is motivated by the research in solar radiophysics. However, in this article the emphasis is placed on basic properties of the instability rather than its application.