Abstract
In an analysis of the propagation of various types of waves in a thin neutral current sheet, dispersion relations are obtained in the kinetic approximation. Streaming instabilities and the tearing-mode instability in neutral sheets are analyzed. In the nonrelativistic approximation, a current sheet in an unsteady external electric field directed along the current is unstable against tearing; in the ultrarelativistic approximation the current sheet is stable against tearing if the external field increases sufficiently rapidly (E0 ~ tm, m > 1). Three simple models for the acceleration of charged particles in neutral fields are worked out: acceleration of particles in the sheet and the surrounding plasma during a rapid rupture of the current sheet, and acceleration of particles when a strong electromagnetic pulse is incident on the sheet. A simple model describing the rupture of the current sheet is analyzed. It is shown that the electric field which arises at the rupture has an amplitude E ~ (v/c)H0, where H0 is the external magnetic field and v is the characteristic plasma velocity in the sheet.
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