NONLINEAR RESONANT HEATING AT ELECTRON-CYCLOTRON SUBHARMONIC FREQUENCY

Power absorption in a plasma due to an ordinary wave propagating at right angles to the magnetic field at a cyclotron subharmonic frequency is investigated. The motion of the electron in an electromagnetic wave in the presence of a magnetic field has been described using a relativistic Hamiltonian with an adiabatic invariant characterizing the dynamical system. Second-order canonical perturbation theory is carried out to obtain the subharmonic response. The energy gain of an electron is obtained in terms of the change in the adiabatic invariant and is utilized to calculate power absorption at a cyclotron subharmonic (3/2-omega(c)) frequency.