Marginal instability threshold condition of the aperiodic ordinary mode in equal-mass plasmas

Journal Article · Wed Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4897373· OSTI ID:22299738

Vafin, S.; Schlickeiser, R. ^[1]; Yoon, P. H. ^[2]

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1. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Lehrstuhl IV: Weltraum- and Astrophysik, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum (Germany)
2. Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 (United States)

The purely growing ordinary (O) mode instability for counter-streaming bi-Maxwellian plasma particle distribution functions has recently received renewed attention due to its importance for the solar wind plasma. Here, the analytical marginal instability condition is derived for magnetized plasmas consisting of equal-mass charged particles, distributed in counter-streams with equal temperatures. The equal-mass composition assumption enormously facilitates the theoretical analysis due to the equality of the values of the electron and positron (positive and negative ion) plasma and gyrofrequencies. The existence of a new instability domain of the O-mode at small plasma beta values is confirmed, when the parallel counter-stream free energy exceeds the perpendicular bi-Maxwellian free energy.

• OSTI ID: 22299738
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 21; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS
ELECTRONS
FREE ENERGY
GYROFREQUENCY
PLASMA
PLASMA INSTABILITY
SOLAR WIND