Electron thermal effects on the Farley–Buneman fluid dispersion relation

Abstract

The traditional linear fluid dispersion relation of Farley–Buneman waves has been generalized by including, for the electron gas, the effects of collisional energy exchange, as well as thermal force and thermoelectric effects associated with heat flow. The formalism used is that of Schunk [Rev. Geophys. Space Phys. 15, 429 (1977)] for Grad’s 8-moment approximation, to which inelastic energy exchange has been added phenomenologically. The resulting dispersion relation recovers both the traditional isothermal and adiabatic limits, as well as the dispersion relation of Pécseli et al. [J. Geophys. Res. 94, 5337 (1989)] as a special case. Owing to the fact that the electron–neutral interaction is far from being of the Maxwell molecule type, it is found that, contrary to suggestions in the literature, adiabaticity does not hold at the larger wavelengths of the instability. In the small wave-number limit, the linear instability threshold speed of the waves takes the form [(γeTe0+Ti0)/mi]1/2, with the effective γe being a sensitive function of aspect angle. Its value can be as small as 0.28 or as large as 3.4 depending on conditions.