Problems in the theory of relativistic plasma microwave electronics

A review of the theoretical studies on wide-band microwave sources employing the stimulated Cherenkov radiation of relativistic electron beams in a plasma waveguide is presented. The motivation for such studies lies in recent experiments on microwave plasma noise sources using intense relativistic electron beams. Although only theoretical problems are discussed, all the necessary estimates are obtained using parameter values taken from actual General Physics Institute experiments, in part already published. A very incomplete preliminary comparison of theoretical and experimental results is given.