ELECTRON HEATING BY SELF-INTERACTION OF BERNSTEIN WAVES

When Bernstein waves (B waves) are excited in a magnetized plasma, the self-interaction of B waves by nonlinear Landau damping becomes a dominant mechanism for the electron heating of bulk plasma. This heating occurs only for B waves with relatively small k(parallel-to), because the damping of the B wave itself becomes very small. This heating occurs in the relatively broad frequency range between omega/omega(c) congruent-to 1.5 and omega/omega(c) congruent-to 1.7 of B waves. For B waves with large k(parallel-to) (k(parallel-to)R>0.15), the fast tail electrons are generated by the quasi-linear cyclotron damping of the B wave itself. The efficiency of the generation of tail electrons is somewhat less than that for electron heating by self-interaction of B waves.