Production of high-energy electrons caused by counterstreaming ion beams in an external magnetic field

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Abstract
A mechanism for producing suprathermal electrons having energies comparable to ion beam energy is studied by a numerical simulation. The system consists of background ions and electrons and a beam flowing across the magnetic field. The time scale considered is less than the ion gyro period, so the ion Larmor motion is ignored. Suprathermal electrons are produced when the ion beam density is smaller than the background plasma density, through resonant interactions with the excited waves propagating obliquely to the magnetic field. The work is motivated by Alfvén’s suggestion of the critical ionization phenomenon.