Analysis of Thomson scattering from nonequilibrium plasmas

We develop the theory for light scattering as a diagnostic method for plasmas in nonequilibrium states. We show how well-known nonequilibrium features, like beam acoustic modes, arise in the spectra. The analysis of an experiment with strongly driven electrons demonstrates the abilities of the new approach; we find qualitatively different scattering spectra for different times and excellent agreement with the experimental data after time integration. Finally, an analysis of data from dense beryllium suggests that an energetic electron component exists in this experiment as well.