Abstract: | Theoretical investigations of transition radiation of sound under the uniform motion of small momentum and mass (heat) sources in a gas with chaotic inhomogeneities of density and temperature are briefly discussed. We analyze two basic methods for calculating the source losses by the radiation of acoustic waves. The first method is based on the calculation of the energy flux in the Born approximation over small perturbations of the parameters of the medium, and allows us, in particular, to clarify the problem of the angular distribution of the radiation. The second method is based on the use of the effective permittivity tensor, which links together the spatiotemporal Fourier transforms of the average momentum of a unit volume of the medium and the average (over the ensemble) velocity of the wave perturbations. The dependence of the radiation reaction force on the velocity of the motion of source is analyzed for the case of small-scale and large-scale inhomogeneities of the medium.Radiophysical Research Institute, Nizhny Novgorod. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 38, Nos. 1–2, pp. 44–55, January–February, 1995. |