Current driven instability in collisional dusty plasmas

Journal Article · Sun Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 2009 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3264834· OSTI ID:21274295

Pandey, B P ^[1]; Vladimirov, S V; Samarian, A ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109 (Australia)
2. Complex Systems, School of Physics, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006 (Australia)

The current driven electromagnetic instability in a collisional, magnetized, dusty medium is considered in the present work. It is shown that in the presence of the magnetic field aligned current, the low-frequency waves in the medium can become unstable if the ratio of the current to the ambient field is larger than the light speed times the wave number. The growth rate of the instability depends upon the ratio of the Alfven to the dust cyclotron frequency as well as on the ratio of the current density J to the dust charge density Zen{sub d}, where Z is the number of electronic charge on the grain, e is the electron charge, and n{sub d} is the dust number density. The typical growth rate of this instability is on the order of Alfven frequency which compares favorably with the electrostatic, cross-field current driven, Farley-Buneman instability and thus could play an important role in the Earth's ionosphere.

• OSTI ID: 21274295
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 16; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ALFVEN WAVES
CHARGE DENSITY
CURRENT DENSITY
CYCLOTRON FREQUENCY
DUSTS
INSTABILITY GROWTH RATES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PLASMA
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA INSTABILITY