Ion tearing in a magnetotail configuration with an embedded thin current sheet
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
The ion tearing instability is investigated in a magnetotail configuration that consists of a diffuse plasma sheet current and an embedded, thin current sheet with a strong current. For historical reasons, the thin embedded current sheet will be called a {open_quotes}neutral sheet{close_quotes}, even though the normal component of the magnetic field, B{sub n}, is nonzero. In particular, the authors assume that the current within the thin current sheet is due to the acceleration of {open_quotes}Speiserlike{close_quotes} ion trajectories by a cross-tail electric field E{sub y}. It is found that the strong current within the neutral sheet is essentially unimportant to the growth rate of the tearing instability, and that the growth rate scales as ({lambda}{sub 0}/L{sub z}){sup 2}, where L{sub z} is the overall half thickness of the plasma sheet, {lambda}{sub 0} is the ion inertial length, c/{omega}{sub pi}, and {omega}{sub pi} is the ion plasma frequency at the neutral sheet edge. In the absence of the current outside the neutral sheet, current filamentation is stable. 37 refs., 3 figs.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 166709
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 97, Issue A11; Other Information: PBD: 1 Nov 1992
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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