Evidence for Langmuir Solitons in Solar Type III Bursts

The source regions of solar type III radio bursts are the regions of very intense Langmuir wave packets excited by the bump-on-tail distributions of energetic electrons accelerated during solar flares. We report the high time resolution observations of some of these wave packets, which provide unambiguous evidence for Langmuir solitons formed as a result of oscillating two stream instability (OTSI), since (1) they occur as intense localized one-dimensional magnetic field aligned wave packets, (2) their measured half-widths and peak amplitudes are inversely correlated to each other, so that the narrower the wave packet, the greater is its amplitude; this inverse correlation is the characteristic feature of Langmuir solitons formed as a result of balance between the non-linearity related self-compression and dispersion related broadening of the wave packets, (3) their FFT spectra contain peaks corresponding to side bands and low frequency enhancements in addition to pump Langmuir waves, whose frequencies and wave numbers satisfy the resonance conditions of the four-wave interaction known as the oscillating two stream instability (OTSI), and (4) they are accompanied by their ponderomotive force induced density cavities. The implication of these observations for theories of solar radio bursts is discussed.