The effect of velocity space diffusion on the universal instability in a plasma

Abstract

The influence of collisions on the universal instability in a fully ionized in- homogeneous plasma is investigated by means of a simplified Fokker-Planck kinetic equation. For the Fokker-Planck model yields results qualitatively similar to the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook model, but the two models give different collisional effects in the case where b ≥ 1. Further it is shown that collisions in general enhance the temperature gradient instability in a plasma when b ≪ 1 and reduce it when b ≥ 1.