Drift modes of a quasi-two-dimensional current sheet

Journal Article · Thu Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Plasma Physics Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063780X1202002X· OSTI ID:22047420

Artemyev, A V; Malova, Kh V; Popov, V Yu; Zelenyi, L M ^[1]

---

1. Russian Academy of Sciences, Space Research Institute (Russian Federation)

Stability of a plasma configuration consisting of a thin one-dimensional current sheet embedded into a two-dimensional background current sheet is studied. Drift modes developing in plasma as unstable waves along the current direction are considered. Dispersion relations for kink and sausage perturbation modes are obtained depending on the ratio of parameters of thin and background current sheets. It is shown that the existence of the background sheet results in a decrease in the instability growth rates and a significant increase in the perturbation wavelengths. The role of drift modes in the excitation of oscillations observed in the current sheet of the Earth's magnetotail is discussed.

• OSTI ID: 22047420
• Journal Information: Plasma Physics Reports, Vol. 38, Issue 3; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2012 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1063-780X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
DISPERSION RELATIONS
DISTURBANCES
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
EXCITATION
INSTABILITY GROWTH RATES
MAGNETOTAIL
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
OSCILLATIONS
PLASMA
PLASMA SHEET
STABILITY
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS