Stabilization effect of a strong HF electrical field on beam-plasma interaction in a relativistic plasma waveguide

The influence effect of a strong HF electrical field on the excitation of surface waves by an electron beam under the development of instability of low-density electron beam passing through plane relativistic plasma is investigated. Starting from the two fluid plasma model we separate the problem into two parts. The "temporal" (dynamical) part enables us to find the frequencies and growth rates of unstable waves. This part within the redefinition of natural (eigen) frequencies coincides with the system describing HF suppression of the Buneman instability in a uniform unbounded plasma, Natural frequencies of oscillations and spatial distribution of the amplitude of the self-consistent electrical field are obtained by solving a boundary-value problem ("spatial" part) considering a specific spatial distribution of plasma density. Plasma electrons are considered to have a relativistic velocity. It is shown that a HF electric field has no essential influence on dispersion characteristics of unstable surface waves excited in a relativistic plasma waveguide by a low-density electron beam. The region of instability only slightly narrowing and the growth rate decreases by a small parameter and this result has been reduced compared to nonrelativistic plasma. Also, it is found that the plasma electrons have not affected the solution of the space part of the problem. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.