Weibel instability in a plasma with nonzero external magnetic field

The theory of the Weibel instability is generalized for the case of a plasma immersed in a nonzero external magnetic field. It is shown that the presence of this external field modifies the dispersion relation for this mode which now possesses a nonzero frequency. The explicit expression for the rea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnnales geophysicae (1988) Vol. 30; no. 7; pp. 1051 - 1054
Main Authors POKHOTELOV, O. A, BALIKHIN, M. A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Göttingen Copernicus 13.07.2012
Copernicus GmbH
Copernicus Publications
Subjects
Anisotropy
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Magnetic fields
Physics of the ionosphere
Physics of the magnetosphere
Electron cyclotron frequency
Mirror instability
Plasma
magnetic field
growth rates
Dispersion relation
anisotropy
Weibel instability
Electrostatic wave
Electron temperature
Plasma instability
Drift instability
Ionosphere (Plasma waves and instabilities)
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Summary:The theory of the Weibel instability is generalized for the case of a plasma immersed in a nonzero external magnetic field. It is shown that the presence of this external field modifies the dispersion relation for this mode which now possesses a nonzero frequency. The explicit expression for the real and imaginary parts of the frequency is then calculated. It turns out that the linear growth rate remains unchanged, whereas the frequency becomes nonzero due to the finite value of the electron cyclotron frequency. The frequency of the Weibel mode is found to be proportional to the electron temperature anisotropy. The formal similarity of the Weibel and drift-mirror instabilities is outlined.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0992-7689
1432-0576
1432-0576
DOI:10.5194/angeo-30-1051-2012