Nonlinear theory of mirror instability near threshold

Abstract

An asymptotic model based on a reductive perturbative expansion of the drift kinetic and the Maxwell equations is used to demonstrate that, near the instability threshold, the nonlinear dynamics of mirror modes in a magnetized plasma with anisotropic ion temperatures involves a subcritical bifurcation,leading to the formation of small-scale structures with amplitudes comparable with the ambient magnetic field.

Cited by in corpus (5)

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• Mirror instability in the turbulent solar wind
• Nonlinear mirror modes in the presence of hot electrons
• Subcritical mirror structures in an anisotropic plasma