ELECTRON-CYCLOTRON MASER EMISSION FROM STREAMING DISTRIBUTIONS

Motivated by the need to explain observed elliptically polarized emiss ion from Jupiter, the mechanism of electron-cyclotron maser emission i s considered for drifting electron distributions, where the electrons stream with a non-zero mean velocity parallel to the magnetic field li nes. An analytical expression for the semirelativistic growth rate is derived and its properties analysed in detail for waves generated in t he magneto-ionic modes. The main features of the growth rate are discu ssed, on the basis of a geometric analysis using resonant ellipses.