Experimental measurements on the long-time evolution of strong Langmuir turbulence in a beam-plasma system reveal a picture of periodic, short bursts of Langmuir wave collapse instead of the existence of long-lived solitons. The remnants of density cavities from burnout cavitons are observed to curtail wave growth periodically, creating time intervals of low wave activity between successive cycles of wave collapse, and establishing three regimes of wave evolution.

• Received 14 June 1985

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.1880