title: Instability versus equilibrium propagation of a laser beam in plasma.
abstract: We obtain, for the first time, an analytic theory of the forward stimulated Brillouin scattering instability of a spatially and temporally incoherent laser beam that controls the transition between statistical equilibrium and nonequilibrium (unstable) self-focusing regimes of beam propagation. The stability boundary may be used as a comprehensive guide for inertial confinement fusion designs. Well into the stable regime, an analytic expression for the angular diffusion coefficient is obtained, which provides an essential correction to a geometric optic approximation for beam propagation.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS-B213, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
authors.forename: Pavel M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Lushnikov
authors.forename: Harvey A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Rose