Observation of pulsed fast electron precipitations and the cyclotron generation mechanism of burst activity in a decaying ECR discharge plasma

Abstract

We have detected and investigated quasi-periodic series of pulsed energetic electron precipitations in the decaying plasma of a pulsed ECR discharge in a mirror axisymmetric magnetic trap. The observed particle ejections from the trap are interpreted as the result of resonant interaction between energetic electrons and a slow extraordinary wave propagating in the rarefied plasma across the external magnetic field. We have been able to explain the generation mechanism of the sequences of pulsed precipitations at the nonlinear instability growth phase in terms of a cyclotron maser model in which the instability threshold is exceeded through a reduction in electromagnetic energy losses characteristic of the plasma decay.