Velocity space degrees of freedom of plasma fluctuations

Abstract

We present the first measurements of a plasma velocity-space cross-correlation matrix. A singular value decomposition is applied to this inherently Hermitian matrix, and the relation between the eigenmodes and the plasma kinetic fluctuation modes is explored. A generalized wave admittance is introduced for these eigenmodes.

Published in Physics of Plasma Letters. This is the version that was sent in and accepted