A note on the Weibel instability and thermal fluctuations
arXiv:1202.5424 · doi:10.5194/angeo-30-427-2012
Abstract
The thermal fluctuation level of the Weibel instability is recalculated. It is shown that the divergence of the fluctuations at long wavelengths, i.e. the Weibel infrared catastrophe, never occurs. At large wavelengths the thermal fluctuation level is terminated by the presence of even the smallest available stable thermal anisotropy. Weibel fields penetrate only one skin depth into the plasma. When excited inside, they cause layers of antiparallel fields of skin depth width and vortices which may be subject to reconnection.
4 pages, 2 figures, accepted by Ann Geophys
References in corpus (5)
- Generation of Magnetic Fields in the Relativistic Shock of Gamma-Ray-Burst Sources
- Magnetic fields in the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe
- Fundamentals of collisionless shocks for astrophysical application, 2. Relativistic shocks
- Magnetic guide field generation in thin collisionless current sheets
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Cited by in corpus (5)
- Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection in Space Plasmas
- Collisionless shock formation, spontaneous electromagnetic fluctuations and streaming instabilities
- Electron cyclotron maser instability (ECMI) in strong magnetic guide field reconnection
- Weibel, Firehose and Mirror mode Relations
- Transport of and Radiation Production by Trans-relativistic/Non-relativistic Particles Moving Through Sub-Larmor-Scale Electromagnetic Turbulence