Electron-acoustic instability driven by a crossfield hot electron-beam

Abstract

On the basis of kinetic theory, the electron-acoustic instability is studied in a three component plasma consisting of a hot electron-beam and stationary cool electrons and ions. The transformation of the instability into the modified two-stream instability for wave propagation oblique to the confining magnetic field is also investigated. In our model both the electrons and ions are magnetized, with the beam drifting across the external magnetic field. The dependence of the growth rate on plasma parameters, such as electron-beam density, electron-beam speed, magnetic field strength and propagation angle, is examined. In addition, we investigate the effect of anisotropies in the velocity distributions of the hot electron-beam and the cool electrons on the instability growth rate.