The kinematics of the electrostatic (ES) decay of a Langmuir wave into a Langmuir wave and an ion sound wave are generalized to a weakly magnetized plasma. Unlike the unmagnetized case, ES decay in a magnetized plasma is always kinematically permitted and can produce daughter Langmuir waves with very small wave numbers, which we demonstrate by quasilinear simulations. The simulations further show that ES decay in magnetized plasmas is consistent with STEREO spacecraft observations of transversely polarized Langmuir waves in the solar wind.

• Received 14 March 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.185001