Large-Debye-distance effects in a homogeneous plasma

The classical phenomenon of electron plasma oscillations has been investigated from new aspects. The applicability of standard normal-mode analysis of plasma perturbations has been judged from comparisons with exact numerical solutions to the linearized initial-value problem. We consider both Maxwellian and non-Maxwellian velocity distributions. Emphasis is on perturbations for which αλ_D is of order unity, where α is the wavenumber and λ_D the Debye distance. The corresponding large-Debye-distance (LDD) damping is found to substantially dominate over Landau damping. This limits the applicability of normal-mode analysis of non-Maxwellian distributions. The physics of LDD damping and its close connection to large-Larmor-radius (LLR) damping is discussed. A major discovery concerns perturbations of plasmas with non-Maxwellian, bump-in-tail, velocity distribution functions f₀(ω). For sufficiently large αλ_D (of order unity) the plasma responds by damping perturbations that are initially unstable in the Landau sense, i.e. with phase velocities initially in the interval where df₀/dw > 0. It is found that the plasma responds through shifting the phase velocity above the upper velocity limit of this interval. This is shown to be due to a resonance with the drifting electrons of the bump, and explains the Penrose criterion.