Electron-acoustic instability driven by a field-aligned hot electron beam

Abstract

Using kinetic theory, the electron-acoustic instability is investigated in a three-component plasma consisting of a hot electron beam and stationary cool electrons and ions. In the model considered here both the electrons and ions are magnetized, with the beam drift along the external magnetic field. The dependence of the growth rate on plasma parameters, such as electron-beam density, electron-beam speed, magnetic field strength and propagation angle, is studied. In addition, the effects of anisotropies in the velocity distributions of the hot electron beam and the cool electrons on the instability growth rate are examined.