Relativistically intense plane electromagnetic waves in electron–positron plasmas: Nonlinear self-modulation and harmonics generation regimes

A fully nonlinear one-dimensional problem describing the interactions of relativistically intense plane electromagnetic waves and cold locally non-neutral electron–positron plasmas is derived from Maxwell and fluid dynamics equations. Numerical and asymptotic solutions to this problem for phase velocities close to the speed of light are presented. Depending on the magnitude of the plasma longitudinal electric-field potential, the system considered is found to support two distinct regimes of plane electromagnetic wave propagation: a nonlinear self-modulation one with the coupling of a fast transversely polarized electromagnetic field to a slow longitudinal plasma field, and a harmonics generation one with both of these fields oscillating with comparable frequencies. In the former case, a splitting of the electromagnetic field spectrum into a series of closely located bands occurs, whereas in the latter one the propagating field spectrum is a set of radiation harmonics.