Resistive drift instabilities for thermal and non-thermal electron distributions in electron-ion plasma

Umer Rehman

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e01096

Resistive drift instabilities for thermal and non-thermal electron distributions in electron-ion plasma

Heliyon. 2018 Dec 29;4(12):e01096. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e01096. eCollection 2018 Dec.

Author

Umer Rehman^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, PR China.
² Department of Engineering and Applied Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, PR China.

Abstract

Local dispersion relations for resistive drift mode in a nonuniform magnetize plasma are derived for thermal and non-thermal distribution of electrons. The coupled mode equations are obtained by using Braginskii's transport equations for ions and electrons with thermal as well as non-thermal (Cairns and kappa) distribution for electrons. The dispersion relations are then analyzed both analytically as well as numerically for all distributions. It is found that growth rate is highest for Maxwellian, Intermediate for kappa and lowest for Cairns distribution. It has been found that increasing values of $Γ$ (which estimate population of non-thermal electrons) for Cairn distributed electrons are able to stabilize the mode. Furthermore, increasing the values of $κ$ (which is spectral index) for the kappa distributed electrons have destabilizing effects on the mode. The result might be useful in the interpretation of electromagnetic fluctuations in nonuniform magneto-plasma in which resistivity is a key element in calculation of drift instabilities in the presence of thermal or nonthermal electron distributions, such systems are extensively observed in laboratory as well as space plasma.

Keywords: Plasma physics.