Ion Heating and Flow Driven by an Instability Found in Plasma Couette Flow

Milhone, J.; Flanagan, K.; Egedal, J.; Endrizzi, D.; Olson, J.; Peterson, E.  E.; Wright, J.  C.; Forest, C.  B.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.126.185002

Ion Heating and Flow Driven by an Instability Found in Plasma Couette Flow

Journal Article · Wed May 05 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.126.185002· OSTI ID:1852567

^[1]; ^[2]; Egedal, J. ^[2]; Endrizzi, D. ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[3]; Wright, J. C. ^[3]; Forest, C. B. ^[2]

Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); OSTI
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Here, we present the first observation of instability in weakly magnetized, pressure dominated plasma Couette flow firmly in the Hall regime. Strong Hall currents couple to a low frequency electromagnetic mode that is driven by high-β (>1) pressure profiles. Spectroscopic measurements show heating (factor of 3) of the cold, unmagnetized ions via a resonant Landau damping process. A linear theory of this instability is derived that predicts positive growth rates at finite β and shows the stabilizing effect of very large β, in line with observations.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0018266

OSTI ID:: 1852567

Journal Information:: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 126; ISSN 0031-9007

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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