Role of electron inertia and electron/ion finite Larmor radius effects in low-beta, magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability
- Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)
- Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
The magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor (MRT) instability has been explored in great detail in previous work using magnetohydrodynamic and kinetic models for low-beta plasmas. The work presented here extends previous studies of this instability to regimes where finite-Larmor-Radius (FLR) effects may be important. Comparisons of the MRT instability are made using a 5-moment and a 10-moment two-fluid model, the two fluids being ions and electrons. The 5-moment model includes Hall stabilization, whereas the 10-moment model includes Hall and FLR stabilization. Results are presented for these two models using different electron mass to understand the role of electron iner- tia in the late-time nonlinear evolution of the MRT instability. For the 5-moment model, the late- time nonlinear MRT evolution does not significantly depend on the electron inertia. Yet, when FLR stabilization is important, the 10-moment results show that a lower ion-to-electron mass ratio (i.e., larger electron inertia) under-predicts the energy in high-wavenumber modes due to larger FLR stabilization.
- Research Organization:
- Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0016515
- OSTI ID:
- 1618115
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1471443
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 9; ISSN 1070-664X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
A survey of fluid and kinetic instabilities relevant to space and laboratory plasmas
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journal | February 2019 |
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