A Plasma instability is a region where turbulence occurs due to changes in the characteristics of a plasma (eg. temperature, density, electric fields, magneti fields). As the name suggests, instabilities are unstable, though they may appear to evolve through different forms (morphology). Similar types of instability are common in fluids (liquids and gases).
Plasma instabilities can be divided into two general groups (1) hydrodynamic instabilities (2) kinetic instabilities. Plasma instabilities are also categorised into different modes:
(azimuthal wave number)
displays harmonic variations of beam radius with distance along the beam axis
|m=1||Sinuous, kink or hose instability:|
represents transverse displacements of the beam crosssection without change in the form or in a beam characteristics other than the position of its center of mass
growth leads towards the breakup of the beam into separate filaments.
|Gives an elliptic cross-section|
|m=3||Gives a pyriform (pear-shaped) cross-section|
Source: Andre Gsponer, "Physics of high-intensity high-energy particle beam propagation in open air and outer-space plasmas" (2004)
List of plasma instabilities
- Buneman, O., "Instability, Turbulence, and Conductivity in Current-Carrying Plasma" (1958) Physical Review Letters, vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 8-9
- Kho, T. H.; Lin, A. T., "Cyclotron-Cherenkov and Cherenkov instabilities" (1990) IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (ISSN 0093-3813), vol. 18, June 1990, p. 513-517
- Finn, J. M.; Kaw, P. K., "Coalescence instability of magnetic islands" (1977) Physics of Fluids, vol. 20, Jan. 1977, p. 72-78. (More citations)
- Uhm, H. S.; Siambis, J. G., "Diocotron instability of a relativistic hollow electron beam" (1979) Physics of Fluids, vol. 22, Dec. 1979, p. 2377-2381.
- Andre Gsponer, "Physics of high-intensity high-energy particle beam propagation in open air and outer-space plasmas" (2004)