Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2009
Starting from the kinetic equation and Maxwell's equations, a dispersion relation is obtained for wave propagation through a fully-ionized plasma along a spatially-uniform, external, periodic magnetic field B0 cos ω0t, and several excitation conditions are deduced. The parametri excitation of waves in a plasma by spatially uniform external periodic electric field has been considered by several authors (Aiev & Silim 1965; Montgomery & Alexeff 1966; Jackson 1967; Prasad 1967, 1968; Nishikawa 1968 a, b). The effect of spatially uniform external periodic magnetic field on wave propagation through a hot plasma was considered by Das (1971), who used hydrodynamic equations to study the effect of wave propagation perpendicular to a spatially-uniform, external, periodic magnetic field.