Global Phase Locking in Superradiant Chorus Emissions

Abstract

Coherent wave amplification in inhomogeneous systems is usually described in terms of resonance and nonlinear phase locking, but these local phase conditions do not determine how the wave amplitude evolves when the resonance condition changes during wave propagation. Here we identify a global phase-locking principle, in which the stable resonant phase remains nearly unchanged as the resonance detuning evolves. This condition requires the wave amplitude to track the evolving detuning and leads to linear amplitude growth with distance, producing the quadratic intensity scaling characteristic of superradiant emission. We demonstrate this mechanism using self-consistent kinetic simulations of whistler-mode chorus waves, one of the most important coherent electromagnetic emissions in Earth's magnetosphere. The simulated chorus amplitude and effective growth rate follow the predicted superradiant scalings, rather than exponential growth. Direct phase-space analysis further shows that the resonant electron trapping island remains centred at an approximately fixed phase during amplification. These results identify global phase locking as the dynamical origin of superradiant chorus growth and reveal a general phase-organization principle for coherent radiation in evolving resonant systems.