This thesis is concerned with plasmas and high field physics. We investigate the
oscillations of relativistic plasmas using a kinetic description (Chapter II), a macroscopic
fluid moment description (Chapter III), a quantum description (Chapter IV
as a brief exploration) and Born-Infeld electrodynamics (Chapter V). Using a kinetic description, we examine the non-linear electrostatic oscillations
of waterbag-distributed plasmas and obtain the maximum electric field Emax
(Chapter II). Using a macroscopic fluid moment description with the closure of the Equations
Of State (EOSs), we obtain the maximum electric field Emax of electrostatic
oscillations for various waterbag-distributed electron fluids, which may imply the
advantages of some fluids with particular EOSs in the aspect of particle acceleration.
Furthermore, we find that fluids with a more general class of EOSs may have
the same advantages (Chapter III). A brief numerical calculation of an ODE system originating from the Maxwell
equations and a Madelung decomposition of the Klein-Gorden equation with a
U(1) field shows that electrostatic oscillations decay in a Klein-Gorden plasma
due to quantum effects (Chapter IV). With calculations using the Born-Infeld equations and the Lorentz equation,
we investigate the electrostatic and electromagnetic oscillations in cold plasmas in
Born-Infeld electrodynamics (Chapter V). For the electrostatic oscillations we find that the electric field of Born-Infeld electrodynamics
behaves differently from that of Maxwell electrodynamics. However,
Born-Infeld electrodynamics gives the same prediction as Maxwell electrodynamics
for the maximum energy that a test electron may obtain in an electrostatic wave
(Section VA). For electromagnetic waves, the dispersion relation and the cutoff frequencies of
the “R”, “L” and “X” modes of electromagnetic waves in Born-Infeld cold plasma
are deduced to be different from those in Maxwell cold plasma. The cutoff frequencies
(when the index of refraction n → 0) are also obtained, showing the advantage
of “O” mode waves for the acceleration of particles (Section VB).