H.f. instability of a finite pressure plasma in the presence of the loss cone

Abstract

The stability is investigated of a homogeneous, collisionless finite pressure plasma with beta >or approximately=1 ( beta is ratio of the plasma pressure to that of the containing magnetic field). It is shown that in such a plasma with a non-monotonic distribution of transverse ion velocities, a high frequency instability ( omega >> omega Bi-the ion cyclotron frequency) develops on the whistler branch with growth rate gamma approximately (mi/me)1/2 omega Bi. The influence of Landau damping on the development of the instability is considered. It is shown that to stabilize the long wavelength perturbations with k omega pe/c.