Lower Hybrid Drift Research Articles

Lower-hybrid drift instability in a thin current sheet with κ velocity distribution

The lower-hybrid drift instability (LHDI) in a thin current sheet in the intermediate-wavelength (kyρiρe∼1, where ky, ρe, and ρi are the wave vector and the electron and ion gyroradii, respectively) regime for particles with κ velocity distribution is studied. The latter is more suitable for describing nonthermal distributions with an enhanced high-energy tail and includes the Maxwellian as a limiting case. It is shown that linear electromagnetic LHDI can be excited near the center of the current sheet. The growth rate decreases, but the electromagnetic component of the LHD mode increases with increase in hot particles.

Counterstreaming Beams and Flat-Top Electron Distributions Observed with Langmuir, Whistler, and Compressional Alfvén Waves in Earth’s Magnetic Tail

Relevant new clues to wave-particle interactions have been obtained in Earth's plasma sheet (PS). The plasma measurements made on Cluster spacecraft show that broadband (approximately 2-6 kHz) electrostatic emissions, in the PS boundary layer, are associated with cold counterstreaming electrons flowing at 5-12x10(3) km s(-1) through hot Maxwellian plasma. In the current sheet (CS), electromagnetic whistler mode waves (approximately 10-80 Hz) and compressional Alfvén waves (<2 Hz) are detected with flat-topped electron distributions whose cutoff speeds are approximately 15-17x10(3) km s(-1). These waves are damped in the central CS where |B|<or=1.5 nT, plasma beta approximately 100, and electron distributions isotropic. Three mechanisms are at work: the beta-dependent lower hybrid drift instability (LHDI), acceleration of electrons along the B field by the LHD waves and whistler mode emissions triggered by the cyclotron resonance instability.

Observation of waves near lower hybrid frequency in the reconnection region with thin current sheet

The role of waves and turbulence in the process of magnetic reconnection has been the subject of a great deal of studies and debates in the theoretical literature. Here we report the Cluster observations of electrostatic and electromagnetic waves near the lower hybrid frequency in the reconnection region with a thin current sheet. During the crossing of the separatrix with the reversal of plasma flow and Hall magnetic fields, strong electrostatic fluctuations near the lower hybrid frequency were observed, and the waves were polarized with a large angle to the ambient magnetic field. Strong electromagnetic fluctuations were observed in the center of the current sheet in the diffusion region. The dispersion properties of the electromagnetic wave are studied by using the interferometer method and are compared with the properties of lower hybrid drift instability. The role of the waves in reconnection is discussed.

A route to explosive large-scale magnetic reconnection in a super-ion-scale current sheet

Abstract. How to trigger magnetic reconnection is one of the most interesting and important problems in space plasma physics. Recently, electron temperature anisotropy (αeo=Te⊥/Te||) at the center of a current sheet and non-local effect of the lower-hybrid drift instability (LHDI) that develops at the current sheet edges have attracted attention in this context. In addition to these effects, here we also study the effects of ion temperature anisotropy (αio=Ti⊥/Ti||). Electron anisotropy effects are known to be helpless in a current sheet whose thickness is of ion-scale. In this range of current sheet thickness, the LHDI effects are shown to weaken substantially with a small increase in thickness and the obtained saturation level is too low for a large-scale reconnection to be achieved. Then we investigate whether introduction of electron and ion temperature anisotropies in the initial stage would couple with the LHDI effects to revive quick triggering of large-scale reconnection in a super-ion-scale current sheet. The results are as follows. (1) The initial electron temperature anisotropy is consumed very quickly when a number of minuscule magnetic islands (each lateral length is 1.5~3 times the ion inertial length) form. These minuscule islands do not coalesce into a large-scale island to enable large-scale reconnection. (2) The subsequent LHDI effects disturb the current sheet filled with the small islands. This makes the triggering time scale to be accelerated substantially but does not enhance the saturation level of reconnected flux. (3) When the ion temperature anisotropy is added, it survives through the small island formation stage and makes even quicker triggering to happen when the LHDI effects set-in. Furthermore the saturation level is seen to be elevated by a factor of ~2 and large-scale reconnection is achieved only in this case. Comparison with two-dimensional simulations that exclude the LHDI effects confirms that the saturation level enhancement is due to the ion anisotropy effects, while the LHDI effects shorten the overall time scale significantly. The results imply that the ion temperature anisotropy is one of the key properties that enable large-scale magnetic reconnection to develop in a super-ion-scale current sheet.

Achievement of a New High-Confinement, Collisionless FRC State in TCS-Upgrade

Reducing impurity radiation and overall recycling in the Translation, Confinement, and Sustainment Upgrade (TCSU) device enabled the plasma to enter into a new, collisionless regime with temperatures well over 200 eV, substantially exceeding the radiation barrier. This new field reversed configuration (FRC) state exhibits the following key features: (1) dramatic improvement in current drive efficiency with ζ (ratio of average electron rotation frequency to RMF frequency) approaching 100%; (2) up to 3-fold increase in global energy confinement time; and (3) significant reduction in transport rates, accompanied by a striking transition from a Bohm-like transport to a Lower Hybrid Drift (LHD)-like transport that scales better than gyro-Bohm and as such is very favorable for next step FRC development.

Lower-hybrid drift and Buneman instabilities in current sheets with guide field

Lower-hybrid drift and Buneman instabilities operate in current sheets with or without the guide field. The lower-hybrid drift instability is a universal instability in that it operates for all parameters. In contrast, the excitation of Buneman instability requires sufficiently thin current sheet. That is, the relative electron-ion drift speed must exceed the threshold in order for Buneman instability to operate. Traditionally, the two instabilities were treated separately with different mathematical formalisms. In a recent paper, an improved electrostatic dispersion relation was derived that is valid for both unstable modes [P. H. Yoon and A. T. Y. Lui, Phys. Plasmas 15, 072101 (2008)]. However, the actual numerical analysis was restricted to a one-dimensional situation. The present paper generalizes the previous analysis and investigates the two-dimensional nature of both instabilities. It is found that the lower-hybrid drift instability is a flute mode satisfying k⋅B=0 and k⋅∇n=0, where k represents the wave number for the most unstable mode, B stands for the total local magnetic field, and ∇n is the density gradient. This finding is not totally unexpected. However, a somewhat surprising finding is that the Buneman instability is a field-aligned mode characterized by k×B=0 and k⋅∇n=0, rather than being a beam-aligned instability.

Theory and simulation of lower-hybrid drift instability for current sheet with guide field

The stability of a thin current sheet with a finite guide field is investigated in the weak guide-field limit by means of linear theory and simulation. The emphasis is placed on the lower-hybrid drift instability (LHDI) propagating along the current flow direction. Linear theory is compared against the two-dimensional linear simulation based on the gyrokinetic electron/fully kinetic ion code. LHDI is a flute mode characterized by k⋅Btotal=0; hence, it is stabilized by a finite guide field if one is confined to k vector strictly parallel to the cross-field current. Comparison of the theory and simulation shows qualitatively good agreement.

Roles of ion and electron dynamics in the onset of magnetic reconnection due to current sheet instabilities

Roles of ion and electron kinetic effects in the trigger mechanism of magnetic reconnection due to current sheet instabilities are investigated by means of (2+1∕2)D explicit particle simulation. The simulation is performed for the Harris equilibrium without guide fields in the plane perpendicular to the antiparallel magnetic fields. The instabilities excited in the vicinity of the neutral sheet are classified into two modes, i.e., one is a longer wavelength kink mode and the other is a shorter wavelength kink mode. The growth of the longer kink mode depends only on the ion mass, while the growth of the shorter one depends only on the electron mass. Before the growth of these kink modes, the lower hybrid drift instability leads to two types of plasma diffusion: diffusion at the periphery controlled by ions and diffusion in the vicinity of the neutral sheet controlled by electrons. The diffusion at the periphery affects the ion distribution function at the neutral sheet through the ion meandering motion, and the ion-ion kink mode is destabilized as the electron-independent longer kink mode. The generation of the reconnection electric field at the neutral sheet due to the longer wavelength kink mode is characterized only by the ion dynamics and can take place commonly in ion-scale current sheets observed in the magnetosphere and laboratories.

Lower hybrid drift instability in modified Harris current sheet with negative ions

The lower hybrid drift instability (LHDI) in a Harris current sheet with negative ions is investigated using the kinetic theory. Numerical results show that the negative ions have considerable effect on the LHDI. With increase of the negative-ion concentration, the growth rate of the LHDI increases and its real frequency decreases for any wave length. The Harris current sheet can thus be significantly modified.

Lower-Hybrid Drift Instability in Modified Harris Current Sheet

Lower-hybrid drift instability (LHDI) in a Harris current sheet including a uniform background distribution is investigated in linear local kinetic theory. It is found that the introduction of a uniform background distribution reduces the growth rate and real frequency of LHDI at all wavelengths. Some physical explanations about the effects of the background distribution are provided.

Nonlinear Evolution of Lower-Hybrid Drift Instability in Harris Current Sheet

We perform 2.5-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to investigate the nonlinear evolution of the lower hybrid drift instability (LHDI) in Harris current sheet. Due to the drift motion of electrons in the electric field of the excited low hybrid drift (LHD) waves, the electrons accumulate at the outer layer, and therefore there is net positive charge at the inner edge of the current sheet. This redistribution of charge can create an electrostatic field along the z direction, which then modifies the motions of the electrons along the y direction by E × B drift. This effect strongly changes the structure of the current sheet.

Drift instabilities in current sheets with guide field

Drift instabilities in current sheets with or without the guide field are investigated with a newly developed improved electrostatic dispersion relation. Traditional (local) theories of lower-hybrid drift instability typically assumes small electron drift speed, and expand the electron distribution function in Taylor series. This approximate treatment is removed in this paper. The resulting formalism is uniformly valid for an arbitrary magnitude of relative ion and electron drift speeds, and is valid for an arbitrary strength of the guide field.

Plasma instabilities in magnetically assisted pulsed laser deposition

The laser ablation of a carbon target in a transverse magnetic field is studied using a quadruple Langmuir probe. Ion saturation signals indicate the presence of wavelike behaviour not found in field-free laser ablation of carbon. Results are discussed in terms of the lower-hybrid drift instability and the electron–ion hybrid instability. The results are found to be most consistent with the electron–ion hybrid instability.

Electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations on magnetic reconnection with adaptive mesh refinement

The electromagnetic particle-in-cell (EM-PIC) model using the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) is reconsidered so that it is properly and efficiently applied to the current sheet evolution associated with magnetic reconnection. It is very important to adequately select the refinement criteria for cell splitting. It is demonstrated that fine cells have to be distributed not only in the region where the electron Debye length is small, but also in the region where the electron-scale structure is expected to be significant. While the AMR reduces the number of cells drastically, the total simulation cost is also controlled by the number of particles. In order to reduce the total number of particles in the entire system, the present code controls the local number of particles per cell by splitting or coalescing particles. It is shown that the particle splitting and coalescence are quite effective as well as the AMR to enhance the efficiency of the EM-PIC simulations. A new 3D code extended from the 2D code is also introduced. The code is checked against the tearing instability and the lower hybrid drift instability, and it is confirmed that the code has been successfully developed. It is also found that the 3D simulations can gain more efficiency by using the AMR than the 2D simulations.

Momentum creation by drift instabilities in space and laboratory plasmas

The role of drift turbulence in momentum creation is studied for conditions prevalent in some space and laboratory plasmas. A new approach is presented to analyze non-linear kinetic simulations and to extract the role of wave–particle interaction in momentum creation. The approach is applied to the lower-hybrid drift instability where it is shown that the anomalous resistivity generated does not penetrate into the plasma even when electromagnetic fluctuations are considered.

Anomalous resistivity due to kink modes in a thin current sheet

The roles of microscopic plasma instabilities on the violation of the frozen-in constraint are investigated by examining the force balance equation based on explicit electromagnetic particle simulation for a thin current sheet. Wave-particle interactions associated with lower hybrid drift instability and drift kink instability (DKI) contribute to the wavy electric force term at the periphery of the current sheet and the wavy magnetic force term at the neutral sheet, respectively. In the linear growing phase of DKI, the wavy magnetic force term balances with the electric force term due to the dc electric field at the neutral sheet. It is concluded that the growth of DKI can create anomalous resistivity and result in the violation of the frozen-in constraint as well as the diffusion of current density.

Two-fluid physics and field-reversed configurations

In this paper, algorithms for the solution of two-fluid plasma equations are presented and applied to the study of field-reversed configurations (FRCs). The two-fluid model is more general than the often used magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model. The model takes into account electron inertia, charge separation, and the full electromagnetic field equations, and it allows for separate electron and ion motion. The algorithm presented is the high-resolution wave propagation scheme. The wave propagation method is based on solutions to the Riemann problem at cell interfaces. Operator splitting is used to incorporate the Lorentz and electromagnetic source terms. The algorithms are benchmarked against the Geospace Environmental Modeling Reconnection Challenge problem. Equilibrium of FRC is studied. It is shown that starting from a MHD equilibrium produces a relaxed two-fluid equilibrium with strong flows at the FRC edges due to diamagnetic drift. The azimuthal electron flow causes lower-hybrid drift instabilities (LHDI), which can be captured if the ion gyroradius is well resolved. The LHDI is known to be a possible source of anomalous resistivity in many plasma configurations. LHDI simulations are performed in slab geometries and are compared to recent experimental results.

Quick triggering of magnetic reconnection in magnetotail

Recently, quick triggering of magnetic reconnection (QMRT) even in an ion-scale current sheet is found to be possible with the help of the nonlinear evolution of the lower hybrid drift instability (LHDI). The details of the QMRT mechanism are reviewed mostly based on three-dimensional full-particle simulation results of our group. QMRT is mediated by LHDI and its time scale is comparable to the saturation time scale of LHDI. Depending on the initial current sheet thickness, two types of QMRT, so-called Type-I and Type-II QMRT, are demonstrated.

Plasma instabilities and anomalous resistivity in the current sheet

The role of microscopic plasma instabilities in the current sheet in the violation of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) condition is investigated by means of a -dimensional explicit particle simulation code. Two instabilities, lower hybrid drift instabilities (LHDIs) and drift kink instabilities (DKIs) are found to evolve in the current sheet. In the LHDI growing phase, nonlinear coupling of the fluctuations of the electric field and particle density generates the outward flow and deforms the current sheet profile. The DC electric field leading to the magnetic flux reduction and the damping of equilibrium current are observed in the DKI growing phase. The force balance between the averaged electric force term and the additional wavy component associated with the fluctuations of magnetic field and current density holds at the neutral sheet. This suggests that the DKI can contribute to creating anomalous resistivity and triggering the collisionless magnetic reconnection.

Three-dimensional particle simulation on structure formation and plasma instabilities in collisionless driven reconnection

Structure formation and plasma instabilities in collisionless driven reconnection are investigated by three-dimensional electromagnetic (EM) particle simulation in an open system. In the early period, the lower-hybrid drift instability is excited in tlie periphery of the current layer. In the intermediate period, magnetic islands are created in the downstream due to magnetic reconnection. and they become unstable against a kink instability. In the late period, after the magnetic islands go out through the boundary, a wide, thin current sheet is generated and a low-frequency EM mode is excited in the central region. This mode has a frequency comparable to the ion gyration frequency, and thus it is considered to be the drift kink instability.