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arXiv · 1711.08021

Electrostatic stability of electron-positron plasmas in dipole geometry

Alexey Mishchenko·Gabriel Plunk·Per Helander
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Abstract

The electrostatic stability of electron-positron plasmas is investigated in the point-dipole and Z-pinch limits of dipole geometry. The kinetic dispersion relation for sub-bounce-frequency instabilities is derived and solved. For the zero-Debye-length case, the stability diagram is found to exhibit singular behavior. However, when the Debye length is non-zero, a fluid mode appears, which resolves the observed singularity, and also demonstrates that both the temperature and density gradients can drive instability. It is concluded that a finite Debye length is necessary to determine the stability boundaries in parameter space. Landau damping is investigated at scales sufficiently smaller than the Debye length, where instability is absent.

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Alexey Mishchenko, Gabriel Plunk, Per Helander. 2017-11-21. Electrostatic stability of electron-positron plasmas in dipole geometry. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022377818000193

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