Expansions of the mildly relativistic dispersion
function for nearly perpendicular electron
cyclotron ray tracing
To trace rays very close to the nth electron cyclotron harmonic, we need the mildly relativistic plasma dispersion function and its higher-order derivatives. Expressions for these functions have been obtained as an expansion for nearly perpendicular propagation in a region where computer programs have previously experienced difficulty in accuracy, namely when the magnitude of (c/vt)2 (ω−nωc)/ω is between 1 and 10. In this region, the large-argument expansions are not yet valid, but partial cancellations of terms occur. The expansion is expressed as a sum over derivatives of the ordinary dispersion function Z. New expressions are derived to relate higher-order derivatives of Z to Z itself in this region of concern in terms of a finite series.