Enhanced Landau damping of finite amplitude electrostatic waves in the presence of suprathermal electron tails

Increased Landau damping of electrostatic waves in the presence of low density suprathermal electron populations is examined. An electrostatic dispersion analysis is compared directly with one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of the Landau damping rates. An analytic damping rate formula is presented that is in good agreement with numerical solutions of the dispersion equation over a range of parameters. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.