Linear theory of weakly amplified, parallel propagating, transverse temperature anisotropy instabilities in magnetized thermal plasmas

Abstract

A rigorous analytical study of the dispersion relations of weakly amplified transverse fluctuations with wave vectors ($\vec{k}\parallel \vec{B}$) parallel to the uniform background magnetic field $\vec{B}$ in an anisotropic bi-Maxwellian magnetized electron-proton plasma is presented. We determine the conditions for which the weakly amplified LH-handed polarized Alfven-proton-cyclotron and RH-handed polarized Alfven-Whistler-electron-cyclotron branches can be excited. The results of our instability study are applied to the observed solar wind magnetic turbulence. The Alfvenic instability diagram explains well the main characteristic properties of the observed solar wind fluctuations. Especially, the observed confinement limits at small parallel plasma beta values are explained.

42 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Magnetic fluctuation power near proton temperature anisotropy instability thresholds in the solar wind

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