Beaming electromagnetic (or heat-flux) instabilities from the interplay with the electron temperature anisotropies
Abstract
In space plasmas kinetic instabilities are driven by the beaming (drifting) components and/or the temperature anisotropy of charged particles. The heat-flux instabilities are known in the literature as electromagnetic modes destabilized by the electron beams (or strahls) aligned to the interplanetary magnetic field. A new kinetic approach is proposed here in order to provide a realistic characterization of heat-flux instabilities under the influence of electrons with temperature anisotropy. Numerical analysis is based on the kinetic Vlasov-Maxwell theory for two electron counter-streaming (core and beam) populations with temperature anisotropies, and stationary, isotropic protons. The main properties of electromagnetic heat-flux instabilities are found to be markedly changed by the temperature anisotropy of electron beam Ab = T / T 1, leading to stimulation of either the whistler branch if Ab > 1, or the firehose branch for Ab<1. For a high temperature anisotropy whistlers switch from heat-flux to a standard regime, when their instability is inhibited by the beam.
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