Journal of Plasma Physics

Table of Contents - 1979 - Volume 22, Issue 01  

Research Article

Lower hybrid oscillating two-stream instability in a plasma with magnetic shear

J. M. Wersingera1 p1, A. H. Kritza2‡ and F. Troyona3

a1 Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

a2 Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. 08540

a3 Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Abstract

Magnetic shear is found to have a strong effect on the propagation characteristics of the lower hybrid parametric daughter waves but no significant effect on the pump wave. The analysis of the OTS instability shows that the convective damping introduced by magnetic shear acts on a distance Lxs22CD H(me/mi)½, where H is the magnetic shear scale length. There are two regimes for the convective damping, depending on the wavelength of the parametric daughter waves. For small wavelengths the growth rates are linear functions of (kL)-1. For large wavelengths the growth rates are exponentially decreasing functions of (kL)-1.

(Received May 16 1978)

(Revised October 06 1978)

Correspondence:

p1 Present address: School of Electrical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.

Footnotes

‡ Permanent address: Hunter College/CUNT, New York, NY 10021.