Heating of a Fully Ionized Plasma Column by a Relativistic Electron Beam

A magnetized plasma column (nₚ<~6×10¹³ cm^-3) is heated by the injection of an intense relativistic electron beam along the magnetic field. The energy per electron-ion pair transferred to the plasma increases linearly with the beam-to-plasma density ratio nbnₚ. The electron heating is attributed to the electron-electron beam-plasma interaction while the energetic ions are produced by an electrostatic acceleration. After heating, the plasma column oscillates radially at a frequency proportional to Bnₚ1/2.