Relativistic warm plasma theory of nonlinear laser-driven electron plasma waves.

A relativistic, warm fluid model of a nonequilibrium, collisionless plasma is developed and applied to examine nonlinear Langmuir waves excited by relativistically intense, short-pulse lasers. Closure of the covariant fluid theory is obtained via an asymptotic expansion assuming a nonrelativistic plasma temperature. The momentum spread is calculated in the presence of an intense laser field and shown to be intrinsically anisotropic. Coupling between the transverse and longitudinal momentum variances is enabled by the laser field. A generalized dispersion relation is derived for Langmuir waves in a thermal plasma in the presence of an intense laser field. Including thermal fluctuations in three-velocity-space dimensions, the properties of the nonlinear electron plasma wave, such as the plasma temperature evolution and nonlinear wavelength, are examined and the maximum amplitude of the nonlinear oscillation is derived. The presence of a relativistically intense laser pulse is shown to strongly influence the maximum plasma wave amplitude for nonrelativistic phase velocities owing to the coupling between the longitudinal and transverse momentum variances.