The Cross-Field Streaming Instability with Anisotropic Temperature

Abstract

A general dispersion relation is derived for the plasma with unmagnetized ions and magnetized electrons with anisotropic temperature. Numerical results are presented for the case in which the relative electron-ion cross-field velocity exceeds greatly the Alfven speed of the plasma. The threshold of the instability becomes lower when the ratio of the parallel electron temperature to the perpendicular one increases slightly about unity. The peak growth rates can be considerably larger for the anisotropic temperature.