SIMULATION OF ION HEATING BY THE BEATINGS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC-WAVES INA WEAKLY COLLISIONAL PLASMA

Results are presented from kinetic calculations of ion heating during the beat-wave excitation of ion-acoustic waves by counterpropagating e lectromagnetic waves in a weakly collisional nonisothermal plasma. The role of nonlinear and collisional processes is studied for the situat ion when the phase velocity of the beat wave (chosen so that it is clo se to the velocity of the ion-acoustic wave) is close to or much great er than the ion thermal velocity. In the first case, the dependence of the rate of ion heating on the ion temperature, the ion-ion collision frequency, and the amplitude of the pump wave is investigated.