Tail formation by nonresonant interaction of ions with ion-acoustic turbulence

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Abstract
The quasilinear evolution of ion-acoustic turbulence induced by a constant current in a two-temperature plasma (Te>>Ti) is considered. The pertinent equations, which include both resonant and nonresonant wave-particle interactions, are discretized by a finite element method and solved numerically. It is shown first that the nonresonant interaction provides a powerful mechanism for ion tail formation. It is then shown that linear Landau damping on the high-energy ion tail so formed may quench the ion-acoustic instability as proposed by Dum and co-workers (1974) when interpreting their particle-in-cell simulation results.