Efficiency of Electromagnetic Emission by Electrostatic Turbulence in Solar Wind and Coronal Plasmas with Density Inhomogeneities

We present a new method to semianalytically calculate the radiation efficiency of electromagnetic waves emitted at specific frequencies by electrostatic wave turbulence in solar wind and coronal plasmas with random density fluctuations. This method is applied to the case of electromagnetic emission radiated at the fundamental plasma frequency ωp by beam-driven Langmuir wave turbulence during Type III solar bursts. It is supposed that the main radiation mechanism is the linear conversion of electrostatic to electromagnetic waves on the background plasma density fluctuations, at constant frequency. The radiation efficiency (emissivity) of such a process is larger than that obtained in the framework of models where the low frequency density fluctuations and the corresponding ion sound waves are not external but produced by the electrostatic wave turbulence itself through nonlinear wave–wave interactions. Results show that the radiation efficiency of Langmuir wave turbulence into electromagnetic emissions at ωp is nearly constant asymptotically, with the electromagnetic energy density growing linearly with time, and is proportional to the average level of density fluctuations. Comparisons with another analytical method developed by the authors and with space observations are satisfactory.