Low-frequency Waves In Three-component Plasmas

The dispersion relation and electromagnetic polarization of the plasma waves are comprehensively studied in cold electron, proton, and heavy charged particle plasmas. Three modes are classified as the fast, intermediate, and slow mode waves according to different phase velocities. In electron, proton, and heavy ion plasmas, the fast mode interacts with the intermediate mode at the near-parallel propagating case, and the two modes separate at the large propagating angles. However, the fast and intermediate modes are always separated in the plasmas containing electrons, protons, and negatively-charged heavy particles. The fast and intermediate modes can interact at small propagating angles, whereas the two modes separate at the large propagating angles. The near-parallel intermediate and slow modes experience the linear polarization, circular polarization, and linear polarization again with the increasing wavenumber. The wavenumber regime corresponding to above circular polarization shrinks as the propagating angle increases. Moreover, the fast and intermediate modes occur the reverse change of the electromagnetic polarization at the special wavenumber. While the heavy particles carry the negative charges, the dispersion relations of the fast and intermediate modes are always separated. Furthermore, this study gives new expressions of the three resonance frequencies corresponding to the highly-oblique propagating waves in the general three-component plasmas, and shows the dependence of the resonance frequencies on the propagating angle, the concentration of the heavy particle, and the mass ratio among different kind of particles. Otherwise, we obtain the numerical solution of the plasma waves’ dispersion relation in warm three-component plasmas.