Radiation from electromagnetic sources in a plasma

The radiation from electromagnetic sources in an unbounded, isotropic plasma is treated. Using a two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic approach, the problem is formulated in terms of three orthogonal modes, namely, i) the electromagnetic mode, ii) the electron plasma mode and iii) the ion plasma mode. When formulated in this manner, the radiation from simple electromagnetic sources are obtained easily. Three specific sources are treated, namely, i) a point source of electric current, ii) a uniformly moving charge and iii) a short filament with prescribed current distribution. For the case of the electric dipole and the current filament, the total power radiated in each of the three modes are obtained. A point charge moving uniformly with the velocity of sound, for example, is found to excite only the ion plasma mode. The frequency and the angular spectrum of the emitted radiation are obtained. It is found that at frequencies less than a critical frequency which is approximately equal to times the ion plasma frequency, the radiation has the character of a simple sound wave.