The microinstabilities of a high-β plasma flow with a non-uniform velocity profile
Abstract
The microinstabilities of a high-pressure plasma moving along a magnetic field with a non-uniform velocity profile are investigated. A similar problem was studied earlier by Dobrowolny on the basis of hydromagnetic equations with an oblique viscosity tensor. The present paper, unlike Dobrowolny's work, gives a kinetic analysis. Perturbations with transverse wavelength both larger and smaller than the ion Larmor radius are considered. The analysis indicates that there is a large family of microinstabilities of the ‘drift’ type whose mechanism differs from the classical Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Plasma Physics
- Pub Date:
- December 1980
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S0022377800010369
- Bibcode:
- 1980JPlPh..24..385M
- Keywords:
-
- Controlled Fusion;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Flow;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Stability;
- Nonuniform Plasmas;
- Plasma-Electromagnetic Interaction;
- Velocity Distribution;
- Approximation;
- High Pressure;
- Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability;
- Magnetoacoustics;
- Plasma Oscillations;
- Temperature Gradients;
- Plasma Physics