This grant will support a study of a variety of related naturally-occurring processes involving the interaction of high- energy electrons with electromagnetic waves and with plasma waves in the solar-terrestrial environment. These processes are important for our understanding of solar-flare-related radiation emitted from the sun's lower corona and from the solar wind, and for our understanding of the propagation, stability and emission properties of electron streams, including streams of solar origin, high-energy electrons in the ambient solar wind, electron beams produced near planetary bowshocks, and precipitating electrons in Earth's auroral zones. It is intended investigate a variety of wave instabilities driven by electron velocity anisotropy ("whistler-beam-modes", whistlers, "Weibel" modes, etc.), and by parallel energy inversion (electron plasma waves, etc.). The nonlinear evolution of waves and electron distributions in magnetized plasmas, such as the aurora and the lower solar corona, will be treated using state-of-the-art supercomputer simulations. It is expected to produce the first three-dimensional studies of fully-developed strong plasma wave turbulence excited by electron streams in the solar wind during Type III events, and by electron beams near Earth's bowshock. The proposed research emphasizes basic plasma processes which are strongly rooted in satellite observations of waves and particles.
