RELATIVISTIC CYCLOTRON INSTABILITY IN ANISOTROPIC PLASMAS

Journal Article · Sun Nov 20 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/832/1/36· OSTI ID:22667196

López, Rodrigo A.; Moya, Pablo S.; Muñoz, Víctor; Valdivia, J. Alejandro ^[1]; Navarro, Roberto E.; Araneda, Jaime A. ^[2]

---

1. Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 653, Santiago (Chile)
2. Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción (Chile)

A sufficiently large temperature anisotropy can sometimes drive various types of electromagnetic plasma micro-instabilities, which can play an important role in the dynamics of relativistic pair plasmas in space, astrophysics, and laboratory environments. Here, we provide a detailed description of the cyclotron instability of parallel propagating electromagnetic waves in relativistic pair plasmas on the basis of a relativistic anisotropic distribution function. Using plasma kinetic theory and particle-in-cell simulations, we study the influence of the relativistic temperature and the temperature anisotropy on the collective and noncollective modes of these plasmas. Growth rates and dispersion curves from the linear theory show a good agreement with simulations results.

• OSTI ID: 22667196
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 832, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ANISOTROPY
ASTROPHYSICS
CYCLOTRON INSTABILITY
DISPERSIONS
DISTRIBUTION
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
PLASMA
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SIMULATION
SPACE
WAVE PROPAGATION