Surface modes in magnetized fully ionized plasma

Density fluctuations in a semi-infinite fully ionized plasma in the presence of a uniform magnetic field are investigated using a direct variational principle. ''Two-stream'' distribution functions are included to allow for the expected discontinuity in velocity space at the boundary. The microscopic boundary conditions incorporate both specular reflection and diffuse scattering effects. The shape of the density fluctuation spectrum is very dependent on the orientation of the wave vector (k) with respect to the direction of the magnetic field. The spectrum also shows evidence of both ion and electron surface effects which become enhanced with the increase in diffuse scattering contributions at the boundary.