Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
RESEARCH ARTICLE
10.1002/2016JA023627
Key Points:
Twisted electron acoustic waves
derived by using kinetic model
Landau damped regions of EAWs
in the presence of orbital angular
momentum pointed out
Results illustrated with the help of
Saturns magnetosphere parameters
Correspondence to:
S. A. Shan and Aman-ur-Rehman,
shaukatshan@gmail.com;
amansadiq@gmail.com
Citation:
Rehman, Aman-ur, S. A. Shan,
M. Y. Hamza, and J. K. Lee (2017),
Eect of orbital angular momentum
on electron acoustic waves in
double-Kappa plasma, J. Geophys.
Res. Space Physics, 122,
doi:10.1002/2016JA023627.
Received 24 OCT 2016
Accepted 17 JAN 2017
Accepted article online 26 JAN 2017
2017. American Geophysical Union.
All Rights Reserved.
REHMAN ET AL.
Eect of orbital angular momentum on electron acoustic
waves in double-Kappa plasma
Aman-ur Rehman1,2 , S. Ali Shan2,3 , M. Yousaf Hamza2 , and J. K. Lee4
1 Department of Nuclear Engineering, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nilore, Pakistan,
2 Department of Physics and Applied Mathematics, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nilore,
Pakistan, 3 Theoretical Physics Division, PINSTECH, Nilore, Pakistan, 4 Division of Advanced Nuclear Engineering, Pohang
University of Science and Technology, Pohang, South Korea
Abstract Kinetic theory of electron acoustic waves (EAWs) in the presence of wave angular momentum
has been derived to study the eect of wave angular momentum on the propagation of EAWs in a
non-Maxwellian plasma. Both types of electrons (hot and cool) are modeled as Kappa-distributed velocity
distribution functions. The theory is also applied to Saturns magnetosphere where these kinds of
distribution functions are commonly found. It is seen that the presence of wave angular momentum in the
model has a signicant eect on the existence of the regions where EAWs are weakly damped. The eect
of wave angular momentum on EAWs is studied by dening a parameter = k(lq ), which is the ratio of
the planar wave number to the azimuthal wave number. The wave is purely planar if . The weakly
damped region of EAWs depends strongly on this parameter in addition to other parameters such as hot
electron spectral index h , cool electron spectral index c , the fraction of hot electrons, and hot to cool
electrons temperature ratio. The results also show the eect of on the propagation of EAWs in various
regions of Saturns magnetosphere.
1. Introduction
The coexistence of cool and hot electron populations in the cusp region of magnetosphere, the geomagnetic
tail, and the dayside auroral acceleration region can give rise to the existence of intermediate frequency waves
called electron acoustic waves (EAWs). The frequency of the EAWs lies between the ion plasma frequency and
electron plasma frequency, i.e., pi < r < pe , where pi and pe are the ion and electron plasma frequen-
cies, respectively [Fried and Gould, 1961; Gary and Tokar, 1985; Watanabe and Taniuti, 1997; Baluku et al., 2011;
Summers and Throne, 1991; Rehman et al., 2016]. The phase velocity of these waves lies between the thermal
speed of cool electrons and those of hot electrons. These waves can propagate in unmagnetized and magne-
tized plasma. The damping rate of EAWs is usually very high; however, when the dierence in temperatures
of hot and cool electrons is very large, the damping rate of these waves becomes small and the possibility of
detection of these waves in the laboratory becomes signicant. Kawai et al. [1975] observed the free stream-
ing electron mode and a new mode at frequencies below pe , which appeared to be the EAW. Various regions
of the Earths magnetosphere such as plasma sheet boundary layer, bow shock, cusp and high altitude polar
magnetosphere, magnetosheath, magnetopause, and magnetotail, all composed of two groups of electrons
with distinct temperatures. Recently, a theoretical investigation has been carried out for understanding the
properties of electron-acoustic solitary waves (EASWs) in a beam plasma whose constituents are a cold beam
electron uid, hot nonextensive electrons obeying a vortex-like distribution with nonextensive factor q, and
stationary ions [Shan et al., 2016]. In this work, the impact of trapped electrons on electron-acoustic solitary
waves (EASWs) has been presented with application on dayside auroral zone and other regions of the mag-
netosphere. The coexistence of hot and cool electrons has also been conrmed in laser-induced plasmas
[Holloway and Dorning, 1991; Montgomery et al., 2001; Mace and Hellberg, 1995]. The hot electrons have energy
in the range of (1050) keV whereas the cool electrons are in the energy range of (0.1 to 1.0) keV for the intensi-
ties of Neodymium-glass and CO2 lasers above the values 1014 W/cm2 and 1012 W/cm2 , respectively [Holloway
and Dorning, 1991; Montgomery et al., 2001; Mace and Hellberg, 1995]. Several researchers have studied these
waves by modeling the electron velocity distribution by Maxwellian distribution. However, the nonthermal
nature of the electron distribution in the outer magnetosphere has been revealed in Summers and Throne
[1991] and Barbosa and Kurth [1993]. They showed that the electrons in the outer magnetospheric region
KINETIC ELECTRON ACOUSTIC TWISTED WAVE 1
 Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 10.1002/2016JA023627

possess a superthermal tail of electrons that cannot be described with the help of Maxwellian distribution
function. This superthermal tail of the electrons can be tted well by a power law function such as the distri-
bution also known as the generalized Lorentzian distribution. This kind of distribution has also been observed
in the astrophysical and solar wind plasmas. Depending on the value of the spectral index ( ), the Lorentzian
distribution has a power law tail at velocities higher than the thermal velocity. This distribution approaches
the Maxwellian when . The presence of nonthermal populations at dierent altitudes in space plasmas
proposes a universal mechanism for their creation and important consequences concerning plasma heating,
plasma uctuations, the resonant and nonresonant wave-particle acceleration. In this regard, various theories
suggested for the Kappa distributions and their noteworthy applications in coronal and space plasmas have
been summarized by Pierrard and Lazar [2010]. For space plasmas, the typical values of the spectral index
range from 2 to 6 [Pierrard and Lazar, 2010]. Kappa distribution is distinguished from the Maxwellian case due
to the presence of a large number of suprathermal particles. This results in a signicant change in the rate
of collisionless energy transfer between particles and the plasma wave. Under such conditions the growth or
damping rate of the plasma waves, the excitation conditions for instability, and the rate of anomalous trans-
port processes that rely on wave-particle interaction could change signicantly. It is, therefore, interesting to
study the existence of EAWs when the unperturbed state of the plasma is described by the distribution as
given in Baluku et al. [2011], and Barbosa and Kurth [1993].
Some more observations by Schippers et al. [2008] have revealed that double-Kappa distribution with rel-
atively low values of can be used to represent the electron velocity distribution in the Saturnian mag-
netosphere over a large region of the magnetosphere [Koen et al., 2014]. The isotropic three-dimensional
generalized Lorentzian distribution function is given by [Baluku et al., 2011]
( )(+1)
1 ( + 1) v2
fe (v) = 1+ 2 . (1)
( 2 )32 ( 12)

Here is the thermal speed, related to the electron temperature Te and electron mass me by =

2K T
{(2 3)} mB e , where KB being the Boltzmann constant and the physically acceptable condition on
e
spectral index is > 32. The symbol is the gamma function and fe (v) is normalized such that fe (v)d3 v = 1.
The spectral parameter is a measure of the slope of the energy spectrum of the suprathermal particles
forming the tail of the distribution function. Schippers et al. [2008] have shown that in the Saturnian mag-
netosphere, the electron population is such that it has two disparate temperatures and number densities
which can be called cool and hot electron populations [Schippers et al., 2008]. Furthermore, these cool and
hot electron populations require model for their proper kinetic description. Dynamical characteristics of soli-
tary waves, shocks, and envelope modes in Kappa-distributed nonthermal plasmas have been discussed by
Kourakis et al. [2012]. They have employed numerical simulations to conrm theoretical predictions with ref-
erence to stability of electrostatic pulses, as well as the modulational stability prole of bright- and dark-type
envelope solitons.
Starting from the N particle phase space distribution, Livadiotis and McComas [2013] have developed seven
formulations for Kappa distributions (that include the most general to several specialized versions). They
have concluded that this study will provide a toolbox of useful and statistically well-grounded equations for
future space physics research seeking applications to Kappa distributions in theory, modeling, data analysis,
simulations, and other works [Livadiotis and McComas, 2013].
The existence of orbital angular momentum (OAM) caused by the variation of phase structure through eil
(where is the azimuthal angle and l is quantum number involving the azimuthal OAM) has been established
by the use of various techniques such as the cylindrical lenses [Beijersbergen et al., 1993], the synthesized holo-
grams [Bazhenov et al., 1990], and the spiral phase plates [Beijersbergen et al., 1994]. It is now well established
that owing to the nonzero azimuthal component of the Poynting vector at every radial position in the beam,
the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) mode proles carrying the nonzero azimuthal phase associated with the helical
wave fronts can be used to represent the photon beams. Twisted wave solutions instead of planar wave solu-
tions are obtained when LG photon states are described by LG functions. In the context of laboratory and
astrophysics applications, the utility of LG states has already been described in [Padgett and Bowman, 2011;
Grier, 2003; ONeil et al., 2002; Harwitt, 2003; Mendonca and Thide, 2009]. The recent literature survey shows
that the well-known plasma physicists have shown interest in the investigation of plasma dynamics with nite

REHMAN ET AL. KINETIC ELECTRON ACOUSTIC TWISTED WAVE 2

 Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 10.1002/2016JA023627

OAM because of its high signicance in various elds of plasma physics [Tamburini et al., 2010; Leyser et al.,
2009; Shukla et al., 2012]. The study of plasma dynamics with nite OAM has predicted new eects and nontriv-
ial properties attributed to nite OAM in plasmas. The examples are twisted waves and associated instabilities
[Mendonca et al., 2009a; Mendonca, 2012a; Shukla, 2013; Khan et al., 2013; Arshad et al., 2015, 2016].
Many studies such as plasmons [Mendonca et al., 2009a; Arshad et al., 2015] and phonons with nite OAM
states [Arshad et al., 2016; Ayub et al., 2011], the stimulated Raman and Brillouin back scatterings [Mendonca
et al., 2009b], the inverse Faraday eect of linearly polarized laser pulses [Ali et al., 2010], and magnetic eld
generation by higher-order LG plasmons [Ali and Mendonca, 2011] have already been presented in the context
of plasmas. Shahzad and Ali [2014] used hydrodynamic model to derive the dispersion relation for EAWs in
the paraxial approximation by employing the Gaussian and LG beam solutions. They computed the energy
ux of the EAWs in an unmagnetized collisionless uniform plasma and suggested an approximate solution for
the electrostatic potential. Recently, Mendonca [2012b] obtained twisted Langmuir waves and corresponding
damping rates by using kinetic theory to study the LG plasmons with nite OAM states. He showed various
unique features involving the azimuthal electron oscillations. The twisted plasmons with OAM states form
nonuniform phase surfaces of the complex structure. Very recently, the linearized ion vortex structures have
been presented by using kinetic description [Khan et al., 2014].
In this paper, we investigate the dispersive properties of the twisted EAWs along with their correspond-
ing damping rates in an unmagnetized collisionless two-electron component plasma. The ions provide the
background neutrality. Both the electron populations are assumed to be Kappa distributed. By utilizing the
Vlasov-Poisson set of equations, a generalized expression of the dielectric function is obtained in the pres-
ence of both axial and azimuthal velocity components. It is found that nite OAM states signicantly modify
the characteristics of EAWs at cold-electron time scale. This manuscript is organized in the following fash-
ion. In section 2, we employ the linear kinetic theory to derive a dielectric function for the twisted EAWs in a
two-electron component plasma. Section 3 describes the linear dispersion relation and damping rate of the
EAWs and section 4 contains numerical results and its short summary.

2. Theoretical Model
To study linear EAWs involving Laguerre-Gaussian modes, we consider collisionless plasma consisting of
two electron species, the hot electrons and the cold electrons along with the singly charged cool ions as a
background neutralizing species. The charge neutrality condition at equilibrium is given by,
Zi ni0 = nh0 + nc0 , (2)
where ni0 is the equilibrium density of ions, nh0 is the equilibrium density of hot electrons, nc0 is the equilibrium
density of cool electrons, respectively, and Zi is the charge on ion in terms of charge on an electron. Following
the procedure described in [Rehman et al., 2016; Mendonca, 2012; Khan et al., 2014] and solving the coupled
set of linearized Vlasov equation and Poissons equation by assuming Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) proles for the
electrostatic potential and the perturbed distribution function, we get the following form of the dispersion
relation [Khan et al., 2014]
2ps qe f0s v
1+ dv = 0, (3)
s
k2 ( qe v)
where we put ( qe v )= a + ib, such that a = ( kvz ) lq v , and b = qr vr qz vz , ps is the plasma
frequency of the sth species. Here qr , q , and qz are as dened in Rehman et al. [2016] and Khan et al. [2014].
The three-dimensional isotropic distribution function for the sth species is given by
( )(s +1)
1 (s + 1) v2
f0s (v) = 1 + , (4)
(s 2 )32 (s 12) s s2

2K T
where s = c (for cold electrons), h, (hot electrons), and i (ions), respectively, s = {(2s 3)s } mB s (with Ts
s
being the temperature of the equivalent Maxwellian with the same average kinetic energy) is the most prob-
able speed, s is the spectral index of the sth species, which is a measure of the slope of the energy spectrum
of the superthermal particles forming the tail of the distribution, and other terms have the usual meaning.
When the above distribution function is used, the electrostatic dispersion relation takes the following form:
[ ]
22ps 2s 1
1+ + Z
(
zs s zs ) + Z
(
s s ) =0 (5)
s
k2 s2 s

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 Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 10.1002/2016JA023627

Figure 1. The (a) dispersion and (b) damping of EAWs for various values of cool electron spectral index c while the
values of other parameters are h = 4.0 and Th Tc = 100, the fraction of hot electrons is 0.5 and = 1.0. The dashed
curves show the region where ||i || > r2 (strongly damped) and the curves show the region where ||i || < r2
(weakly damped). This pattern of dashing and continuous curves applies to all the gures in this paper.

Here zs = ks , s = (lq s ) and Z (s ) is the modied plasma dispersion function corresponding to

s
Kappa distribution and is given by
+
1 (s ) dy
Z (s ) = ( ) (6)
s (s )12 (s 12) (y s ) 1 + y2 s s

where y = vz s , in closed form, this function can be expressed in terms of hypergeometric function. Note
that in the limit s , Z (s ) becomes the usual plasma dispersion function Z(s ).
s

3. Results and Discussion

By assuming that zh 1, h , zc , c 1, we can expand Z (s ) in the asymptotic form. Furthermore, it is
s
assumed that pi pc , kDc 1, || r and Dc h , the dispersion relation can be written in the
approximate form

( )
(1 + 1 ) + 3k Dc 1 + 1k h (1 + 1 )
2 2 2 2 2 2 4
2r = 2pc ( ) (7)
1 + 1k2 2 (1 + 1 2 )
h

where h = Dh (h 32)(h 12) is the appropriate Debye length of hot electrons in plasma,

Dh = (0 KB Th n0h e2 ) the standard Maxwellian Debye length of the hot electrons, = k(lq ) is ratio

REHMAN ET AL. KINETIC ELECTRON ACOUSTIC TWISTED WAVE 4

 Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 10.1002/2016JA023627

Figure 2. The (a) dispersion and (b) damping of EAWs for various values of hot electron spectral index h , while the
values of other parameters are h = 2.0 and Th Tc = 100, the fraction of hot electrons is 0.5 and = 1.0.

of planar wave number to azimuthal wave number. The wave is purely planar if . In this limit equation (7)
reduces to
( )

1 + 3k2 2Dc 1 + 1k2 2
h
r = pc
2 2
( ) (8)
1 + 1k2 2
h

This is the same equation as derived by Baluku et al. [2011]. It is worth mentioning here that the equations (7)
and (8) do not depend on c . Equation (7) reduces to the dispersion relation derived by Gary and Tokar [1985]
for EAWs in Maxwellian plasma when we take and h . Equation (7) can also be written in the form

[ ]
2
Vs 3Vtc2 (1 + 1 4 )
2r =k 2 2
(1 + 1 ) + , (9)
(1 + 1k2 2 ) (1 + 1 2 )
h

where Vs = h pc is the electron acoustic speed in plasma and Vtc = Dc pc is the thermal velocity of the
cool electrons in Maxwellian plasma. This form has similarity to the ion-acoustic dispersion relation. In this
expression, the acoustic nature is very much evident. Again in the limit when this expression reduces
to the expression for planar waves given by [Baluku et al., 2011]. Under longer wavelength approximation
(i.e., condition k2 2 1) and when h , the equation (7) reduces to the following form,
h

[ ( ) ]
1 (1 + 1 4 )
2r k2 Vs
2
1 + 2 + 3Vtc2 (10)
(1 + 1 2 )

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 Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 10.1002/2016JA023627

Figure 3. The (a) dispersion and (b) damping of EAWs for various values of Th Tc , while the values of other parameters
are c = 2.0 and h = 4.0, the fraction of hot electrons is 0.5 and = 1.0.

It shows that long wavelength waves propagate in a dispersionless manner. Under weak damping condi-
tions, i.e., Tc Th , the phase velocity of the wave simplies to Vs (1 + 1 2 ). For small wavelength waves,
i.e., when k2 2 1 is satised, equation (9) can be written as
h
[( ) 4
]
1 2 2 (1 + 1 )
r pc 1 + 2 + 3k Dc
2 2
(11)
(1 + 1 2 )

This expression is independent of spectral index of both the hot and cool electrons and is the same expres-
sion that can be obtained by considering cool electrons only for Langmuir waves. This shows the inability of
the hot electrons to adequately Debye shield the charge density oscillations established by cool electrons
for small wavelength waves. This results in Langmuir-like wave behavior instead of acoustic wave behavior.
Equations (10) and (11) are the approximate forms of the dispersion relation of the Kappa-distributed twisted
EAWs and show the dispersion behavior of EAWs in the small and large wave number limits.
To illustrate the behavior of EAWs, the dispersion relation (5) has been solved numerically to determine the real
(r pe ) and imaginary (i pe ) parts of normalized frequency. In our numerical calculations, the mass ratio of
ion to electron is taken as 1836 and the ratio of ion temperature to cool electron temperature is considered as
0.001. The ions are assumed to follow Maxwellian distribution and for this purpose, the spectral index for ions
is taken to be i = 50. We have studied the eect of spectral indices, temperature ratios, and densities ratios
on the dispersion and damping rate of EAWs. We have also applied this theory to see the eect of OAM on
the EAWs in the Saturns magnetosphere. Figure 1 shows the wave behavior for various values of cool electron
spectral index c while the values of other parameters are xed. The hot electron spectral index h = 4.0, the
ratio of temperature of hot to cool electrons is 100.0, number density of hot electrons is equal to the density
of cool electrons, and = k(lq ) = 1.0. By comparing r 2 against i we see that the regions where elec-
tron acoustic waves (EAWs) can exist are dierent when the angular momentum is taken into account from
the regions when the angular momentum of the wave is not taken into account. Figure 1 shows that for

REHMAN ET AL. KINETIC ELECTRON ACOUSTIC TWISTED WAVE 6

 Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 10.1002/2016JA023627

Figure 4. The (a) dispersion and (b) damping of EAWs for various values of n0h n0e , while the values of other parameters
are c = 2.0 and h = 4.0, Th Tc = 100 and = 1.0.

small values of kDc the EAW is strongly damped, weakly damped for intermediate values of kDc , and again
strongly damped for large values of kDc . However, for twisted waves (in the presence of the orbital angular
momentum), the range of kDc where EAWs are weakly damped is signicantly dierent from the planar waves
(in the absence of the angular momentum). Depending on various values of cool electron spectral index c
the range of existence of EAWs in planar waves is 0.16 kDc 0.52, while for twisted waves this range is
0.22 kDc 0.73. It means that in the presence of orbital angular momentum the EAWs exist over a wider
range of wavelengths when = k(lq ) = 1.0. It is also evident that the presence of OAM does not aect gen-
eral behavior of the dispersion relation and damping rate. However, there is a change in magnitudes of both
the dispersion curve and damping rate. In the presence of OAM, the phase velocity of the wave is increased as
predicted by equation (10). In case of planar wave the phase velocity is Vs = h pc , while in the presence of

OAM, the phase velocity simplies to Vs = h pc 1 + 1 2 . The presence of orbital angular momentum of
the wave also increases the damping rate of the EAWs. Actually, this is the change in real and imaginary parts
of that results in a change in the range of kDc where EAWs can exist. This gure also shows that for longer
wavelengths, the dispersion relation does not depend on cool electron spectral index c . This independence
of phase velocity form c for longer wavelengths is predicted by equations (7) and (8).
Figure 2 shows the eect of hot electron spectral index h on the behavior of EAWs in the presence of wave
angular momentum. The cool electron spectral index c = 2.0, the ratio of temperature of hot to cool electrons
is 100.0, number density of hot electrons is equal to the number density of cool electrons, and = 1.0. This
gure also shows that for small values of kDc the EAW is strongly damped, weakly damped for intermediate
values of kDc , and again strongly damped for large values of kDc . However, for twisted waves (in the presence
of the angular momentum), the range of kDc where EAWs are weakly damped is signicantly dierent from
that of the pure planar waves (i.e., in the absence of the orbital angular momentum). The range of existence of
EAWs depends on the values of hot electron spectral index h , for example, in case of planar waves this range
is 0.15 kDc 0.52, while in the case of twisted waves this range is 0.20 kDc 0.74 for h = 4.0 and for

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 Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 10.1002/2016JA023627

Figure 5. The (a) dispersion and (b) damping of EAWs for various values of , while the values of other parameters are
c = 2.0, h = 4.0, Th Tc = 100, and n0h n0e = 0.5.

h = 2.0 the respective ranges are 0.28 kDc 0.44 and 0.42 kDc 0.63. It means that in the presence
of orbital angular momentum the EAWs exists over a wider range of wavelengths when = 1.0. It is also
evident that the presence of angular momentum does not aect general behavior of the dispersion relation
and damping rate. However, there is a change in magnitudes of both the dispersion curve and damping rate.
As in the case of Figure 1, the presence of orbital angular momentum of the wave results in an increase in
phase velocity and damping rate of the wave for all the values of h used in this gure. This change in the
phase velocity and damping rate results in a change in the range of kDc where EAWs can exist.
Both gures show that there are three distinct regions as identied by Gary and Tokar [1985]. In the long
wavelength (low wave number) regime the phase velocity of the wave is given by v Vs 1 + 1 2 =

h pc 1 + 1 2 . In this regime, phase velocity of the EAWs is in resonance with the thermal speed of the hot
electrons resulting in a strong damping of the waves. The cool electrons have to do nothing in this regime.
The eect of damping is most pronounced for small values of hot electron spectral index h . In the presence of
wave angular momentum, the phase velocity of the wave is multiplied by the factor 1 + 1 2 as compared
to that of the pure planar waves. This results in a longer range of this regime as compared to that for the pla-
nar waves. The second regime is the weakly damped cool electron-based Langmuir-like branch of the EAWs.
This regime occurs for intermediate values of the wave numbers (0.20 kDc 0.74). The range of the wave
numbers that are weakly damped depends strongly on three parameters, i.e., temperature ratio of hot and
cool electrons, density ratio of hot and cool electrons, and . For larger values of the wave number, the phase
velocity of the EAWs becomes small and comparable to the thermal speed of cool electrons. This is the third
regime and is strongly damped due to resonance between EAWs and cool electrons.
Figure 3 shows the eect of hot and cool electron temperature ratio on the EAWs in the presence of orbital
angular momentum of the wave. To see the eect of temperature ratio, the cool electron spectral index is
taken to be c = 2.0, while that for the hot electrons, it is taken to be h = 4.0, number density of hot electrons is

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 Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 10.1002/2016JA023627

Figure 6. The dispersion and damping versus kDc of EAWs corresponding to outermost region of Saturns
magnetosphere for various values of at about (a) R = 13.1 Rs and (b) R = 14 Rs .

taken equal to the density of cool electrons and = 1.0. This gure shows that the damping of EAWs depends
strongly not only on the hot and cool electron temperature ratio but also on the orbital angular momentum
of the wave. For the given conditions, in the absence of orbital angular momentum of the wave, the weakly
damped region for intermediate waves exists when the temperature ratio is greater than 25. However, in the
presence of the OAM of the wave, the weakly damped region for intermediate waves exists when the tem-
perature ratio is greater than 35. The waves are strongly damped over the entire range of wavelengths if the
temperature ratio is less than 35. This gure also depicts that in the presence of orbital angular momentum
the region of weakly damped EAWs increases signicantly with an increase in the temperature ratio of the hot
and cool electrons.
Figure 4 shows the eect of hot and total electron density ratio on the EAWs in the presence of OAM of the
wave. To see the eect of electron density ratio, the cool electron spectral index is taken to be c = 2.0, the hot
electron spectral index is taken to be h = 4.0, the temperature ratio of hot to cool electrons is taken to be 100,
and = 1.0. This gure shows that the weakly damped region of the EAWs does not exist if the hot electron
fraction is less than 0.3 or greater than and equal to 0.8. For this range of hot electron fraction the EAWs are
strongly damped over the entire range of wavelengths. The weakly damped region of the EAWS exists when
the hot electron fraction is greater than or equal to 0.3 and less than 0.8. However, the range of wavelengths
over which the weak damping exists is dierent in the presence and absence of angular momentum. Figure 5
shows the eect of = k(lq ) on the dispersion and damping rate of EAWs. To see the eect of , the hot
electron density is taken equal to cool electron density, the cool electron spectral index is taken to be c = 2.0,
the hot electron spectral index is taken to be h = 4.0, and the temperature ratio of hot to cool electrons is
taken to be 100. This gure shows that dispersion relation and damping rate of EAWs depend strongly on the
values of . As the value of is increased the results for dispersion and damping rate approach the results
of EAWs for a planar case (i.e., when = ). The range of wavelengths over which weak damping exists also
depends strongly on the value of . The maximum range of values of wavelengths for which EAWS are weakly

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 Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 10.1002/2016JA023627

Figure 7. The dispersion and damping versus kDc of EAWs corresponding to intermediate region of Saturns
magnetosphere for various values of at about (a) R = 12 Rs and (b) R = 9.8 Rs .

damped exists when the value of is near 1.0. The phase velocity of the EAWs also depends on the value of
. The gure shows that the phase velocity is very large when = 0.5. Equation (9)shows that phase velocity
can be written as h pc 1 + 1 2 . It shows that for smaller values of the factor 1 + 1 2 is increased and
this results in an increase in the phase velocity of the wave.
To study the eect of the presence of angular momentum on EAWs in Saturns magnetosphere the data given
and used by Baluku et al. [2011] has been used. They have divided the Saturns magnetosphere into three
regions. The inner region of the magnetosphere (R 9 Rs ), the intermediate region of the magnetosphere
(9 Rs < R < 13 Rs ), and the outer region of the magnetosphere (R 13 Rs ) [Baluku et al., 2011]. The values of
various parameters used in this paper have been taken from Table 1 of Baluku et al. [2011]. In Figures 6 to 8,
the real frequency r pe is taken along positive ordinate, while damping rate i pe is taken along the
negative ordinate as functions of kDc . Similar to Figures 1 to 5, the solid line corresponds to the observable
wavelengths. For weakly damped wavelengths, the damping time 1|i | is more than the period of the wave
(r 2 ). For the dashed curves, the damping time is short as compared to the period of the wave, so these
wavelengths are not observable. Figure 6 shows the behavior of EAWs for parameter values corresponding
to Saturns outer magnetosphere in the presence of wave angular momentum. Figure 6a corresponds to the
data at R=13.1 Rs and Figure 6b corresponds to the data at R = 14 Rs . At R = 13.1 Rs , the cool electron spec-
tral index c is 2.1, the hot electron spectral index h is 4.0, the hot electron fraction is 0.46, and hot to cool
electron temperature ratio is 98. Figure 6a shows that depending on the value of there are wide ranges of
wavelengths where EAWs are weakly damped. Widest range of weakly damped wavelengths exists when the
value of is in the vicinity of 1.0. This gure shows that overall parameters at R = 13.1 Rs , are favorable for
observance of EAWs. At R = 14 Rs , the cool electron spectral index c is 2.1, the hot electron spectral index
h is 6.0, the hot electron fraction is 0.40, and the hot to cool electron temperature ratio is 30. In this case,

REHMAN ET AL. KINETIC ELECTRON ACOUSTIC TWISTED WAVE 10

 Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 10.1002/2016JA023627

Figure 8. The dispersion and damping versus kDc of EAWs corresponding to innermost region of Saturns
magnetosphere for various values of at about (a) R = 5.4 Rs and (b) R = 6.3 Rs .

the hot to cool electron temperature ratio is small so the region of wavelengths where EAWs can be observ-
able is very small. This fact is evident from Figure 6b. Depending on the value of there is a small region where
EAWs can be observable.
Figure 7 shows the behavior of EAWs in the intermediate region of Saturns magnetosphere. Figure 7a cor-
responds to the data at R = 12 Rs , where the cool electron spectral index c is 2.0, the hot electron spectral
index h is 3.5, the hot electron fraction is 0.1, and the hot to cool electron temperature ratio is 200. As the
hot electron fraction is very small, there are no wavelengths for which EAWs can be observable for all values
of . Figure 7b corresponds to the data at R = 9.8 Rs , where the cool electron spectral index c is 2.0, the hot
electron spectral index h is 4.0, the hot electron fraction is 0.027, and the hot to cool electron temperature
ratio is 137.5. As the hot electron fraction is very small, again there are no wavelengths for which EAWs can be
observable for all values of . Figure 8 shows the behavior of EAWs in the inner region of Saturns magneto-
sphere. Figure 8a corresponds to the data at R = 5.4 Rs , where the cool electron spectral index c is 8.0, the hot
electron spectral index h is 3.0, the hot electron fraction is 0.002, and hot to cool electron temperature ratio
is 166.7. As the hot electron fraction is very small, there are no wavelengths for which EAWs can be observable
for all values of . Figure 8b corresponds to the data at R = 6.3 Rs , where the cool electron spectral index c
is 2.3, the hot electron spectral index h is 3.0, the hot electron fraction is 0.001, and the hot to cool electron
temperature ratio is 200. As the hot electron fraction is very small, once again there are no wavelengths for
which EAWs can be observable for all values of .

4. Summary
We have derived kinetic theory for EAWs in the presence of waves orbital angular momentum. By deriving ana-
lytic expression for the dispersion relation, the eect of orbital angular momentum has been studied. The full
dispersion relation has been solved to calculate the damping rate of the EAWs and identify the regions where

REHMAN ET AL. KINETIC ELECTRON ACOUSTIC TWISTED WAVE 11

 Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the
anonymous reviewers for reading
the manuscript thoroughly and giv-
ing their valuable suggestions that
helped us to improve the quality of
the manuscript. There is no specic
data created/used in this manuscript.
All the materials of the manuscript
are available with the corresponding
author.
REHMAN ET AL.
10.1002/2016JA023627
these waves are weakly damped. By applying our model to Saturns magnetosphere, it has been learned that
EAWs are weakly damped in the Saturns outer magnetosphere over large range of wavelengths, depending
on the value of . However, in the intermediate and inner regions of the magnetosphere, EAWs are strongly
damped.
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