Mixing in phase—Space due to the two-stream instability of ion and electron beams propagating in background plasma

Abstract

Intense electron or ion beams propagating in plasmas are subject to the two-stream instability, which leads to a slowing down of the beam particles, acceleration of the plasma particles, and transfer of the beam energy to the plasma particles and wave excitations. Making use of the particle-in-cell codes EDIPIC and LSP, we have simulated two-stream instability interactions over a wide range of beam and plasma parameters. Typically, the instability saturates due to nonlinear wave-trapping effects of either the beam particles or plasma electrons. The saturation due to nonlinear wave-trapping effects limits the “mixing” in phase-space and may produce coherent structures in the electron velocity distribution function. For the case of an electron beam, simulations show that the two-stream instability is intermittent, with quiet and active periods. In case of two dimensional simulations, considerable scattering of beam particles is observed for both electron and ion beams.