An increase in air temperature because of its compression.
Explanation:
The Gay-Lussac's Law states that a gas pressure is directly proportional to its temperature in an enclosed system to constant volume.
<em>where P: is the gas pressure, T: is the gas temperature and k: is a constant.</em>
Therefore, due to Gay-Lussac's Law, when the plunger is pushed down very rapidly, the pressure of the air increase, which leads to its temperature increase. That is why cotton flashes and burns.
In this case the coordinate z is multiplied by your wave vector k, so it travels along z. Note that the electric field will be oscillating along the x direction. H and E are perpendicular to the direction of travel in vacuum.