3D electrostatic gyrokinetic electron and fully kinetic ion simulation of lower-hybrid drift instability of Harris current sheet

Journal Article · Thu Jul 07 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4954830· OSTI ID:1305900

Wang, Zhenyu ^[1]; Lin, Yu ^[1]; Wang, Xueyi ^[1]; Tummel, Kurt ^[2]; Chen, Liu ^[3]

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1. Auburn Univ., AL (United States). Dept. of Physics
2. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
3. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou (China). Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation

The eigenmode stability properties of three-dimensional lower-hybrid-drift-instabilities (LHDI) in a Harris current sheet with a small but finite guide magnetic field have been systematically studied by employing the gyrokinetic electron and fully kinetic ion (GeFi) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation model with a realistic ion-to-electron mass ratio m_i/m_e. In contrast to the fully kinetic PIC simulation scheme, the fast electron cyclotron motion and plasma oscillations are systematically removed in the GeFi model, and hence one can employ the realistic m_i/m_e. The GeFi simulations are benchmarked against and show excellent agreement with both the fully kinetic PIC simulation and the analytical eigenmode theory. Our studies indicate that, for small wavenumbers, ky, along the current direction, the most unstable eigenmodes are peaked at the location where $$\vec{k}$$• $$\vec{B}$$ =0, consistent with previous analytical and simulation studies. Here, $$\vec{B}$$ is the equilibrium magnetic field and $$\vec{k}$$ is the wavevector perpendicular to the nonuniformity direction. As ky increases, however, the most unstable eigenmodes are found to be peaked at $$\vec{k}$$ •$$\vec{B}$$ ≠0. Additionally, the simulation results indicate that varying m_i/m_e, the current sheet width, and the guide magnetic field can affect the stability of LHDI. Simulations with the varying mass ratio confirm the lower hybrid frequency and wave number scalings.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-07NA27344; SC0010486
• OSTI ID: 1305900
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1260992
• Report Number(s): LLNL-JRNL-698885; PHPAEN
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 7; ISSN 1070-664X
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics (AIP)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION
normal modes
magnetic fields
electrostatics
magnetic reconnection
particle-in-cell method