Generation of lower hybrid and whistler waves by an ion velocity ring distribution

Using fully kinetic simulations in two and three spatial dimensions, we consider the generation and nonlinear evolution of lower hybrid waves produced by a cold ion ring velocity distribution in a low beta plasma. We show that the initial development of the instability is very similar in two and three dimensions and not significantly modified by electromagnetic effects, consistent with linear theory. At saturation, the level of electric field fluctuations is a small fraction of the background thermal energy; the electric field and corresponding density fluctuations consist of long, field-aligned striations. Energy extracted from the ring goes primarily into heating the background ions and the electrons at comparable rates. The initial growth and saturation of the magnetic components of the lower hybrid waves are related to the electric field components, consistent with linear theory. As the growing electric field fluctuations saturate, parallel propagating whistler waves develop by the interaction of two lower hybrid waves. At later times, these whistlers are replaced by longer wavelength, parallel propagating whistlers that grow through the decay of the lower hybrid fluctuations. Wave matching conditions demonstrate these conversion processes of lower hybrid waves to whistler waves. The conversion efficiency (=ratio of the whistler wave energy to the energy in the saturated lower hybrid waves) is computed and found to be significant (∼15%) for the parameters of the three-dimensional simulation (and even larger in the two-dimensional simulation), although when normalized in terms of the initial kinetic energy in the ring ions the overall efficiency is very small (<10−4). The results are compared with relevant linear and nonlinear theory.