New results on collisionless beam - plasma dynamics in open systems with a non-equilibrium electron velocity distribution are reviewed and demonstrated via computer simulations based on the Vlasov - Poisson equations. It is shown that the known instability of the quasilinear theory (QLT) for sufficiently high wave amplitudes (in respect of the enhancement of wave - particle correlation and formation of space - time coherent structures) makes it invalid for describing plasma dynamics and turbulent transport in the majority of open plasma configurations. A typical example is the classical problem concerning a warm electron beam steadily injected into Maxwellian plasma half-space. Here, the real self-consistent relaxation picture is dramatically different from that predicted by QLT. The discovered fundamental deviations from QLT and their macroscopic consequences may be very important for a deep understanding of plasma transport processes, and are worthy of special laboratory testing. A short review of the present state of the problem and its background is given.
Interrelationship between plasma phenomena in the laboratory and in space