Self-consistent microwave plasma heating rates

Under conditio11S within a hot overdense plasma corona where the field frequency is much less than the electron plasma frequency and the field period is much less than the hydrodynamic expansion time, it is shown that electron field reversal heating can exceed the combined classical heating rates due to inverse bremsstrahlung (skin effect) and field pressure (PdV) by a factor ∼ ve /2vi (half the ratio of electron and ion thermal velocities). In particular this rate can exceed the inertial expansion cooling rate at a collisionless corona density of ∼ 1% solid core density and could be realized experimentally at core temperatures ∼ 3–5 keV and microwave field intensities ∼ 1 MG.