Zebra-like patterns in whistler wave emission spectra from nonequilibrium mirror-confined laboratory plasma

Abstract

Zebra-like patterns have been observed in the electron cyclotron emission spectra from strongly nonequilibrium plasma confined in a table-top mirror magnetic trap. The analysis of the experimental data suggests that the formation of zebra-like patterns could eventually be related to modulation of the whistler waves by the ion-acoustic waves excited during the abrupt ejection of electrons into a loss cone caused by the development of the whistler instability under the electron cyclotron resonance condition.

8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Physics of Plasmas