ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses various problem statements for hydrodynamic modelling of wake waves in a plasma excited by a short high-power laser pulse. When propagating in a plasma, a pulse pushes electrons out of the domain where it is currently located. In addition to the forces from the side of the pulse, the electrons are affected by the electric field from the plasma ions, which can be considered immobile during the initial consideration because of their large mass. Since the pulse runs through the plasma and all the time pushes out the electrons that are in its path, all the time it starts the plasma oscillations behind it. In this case, the initial phase of these oscillations is different at different points in the path of the pulse. A wake wave excited by a pulse retains its structure only at a certain distance behind the source, and then the wave breaks transferring its energy to the plasma particles.
