BEAM-PLASMA INTERACTION AND CORRELATION PHENOMENA IN OPEN VLASOV SYSTEMS

New results on collisionless beam-plasma dynamics in open systems with a non-equilibrium electron velocity distribution are reviewed and dem onstrated via computer simulations based on the Vlasov-Poisson equatio ns. It is shown that the known instability of the quasilinear theory ( QLT) for sufficiently high wave amplitudes (in respect of the enhancem ent of wave-particle correlation and formation of space-time coherent structures) makes it invalid for describing plasma dynamics and turbul ent transport in the majority of open plasma configurations. A typical example is the classical problem concerning a warm electron beam stea dily injected into Maxwellian plasma half-space. Here, the real self-c onsistent relaxation picture is dramatically different from that predi cted by QLT. The discovered fundamental deviations from QLT and their macroscopic consequences may be very important for a deep understandin g of plasma transport processes, and are worthy of special laboratory testing. A short review of the present state of the problem and its ba ckground is given.