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Conditions for the onset of the current filamentation instability in the laboratory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2018

N. Shukla ,
J. Vieira ,
P. Muggli ,
G. Sarri ,
R. Fonseca  and
L. O. Silva
N. Shukla*
Affiliation:
GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
J. Vieira
Affiliation:
GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
P. Muggli
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Physics, 80805 Munich, Germany
G. Sarri
Affiliation:
Centre for Plasma Physics, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
R. Fonseca
Affiliation:
GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal DCTI/ISCTE, Instituto Universitario de Lisboa, 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal
L. O. Silva
Affiliation:
GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
*
†Email address for correspondence: nshukla@ist.utl.pt
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Abstract

The current filamentation instability (CFI) is capable of generating strong magnetic fields relevant to the explanation of radiation processes in astrophysical objects and leads to the onset of particle acceleration in collisionless shocks. Probing such extreme scenarios in the laboratory is still an open challenge. In this work, we investigate the possibility of using neutral $e^{-}~e^{+}$ beams to explore the CFI with realistic parameters, by performing two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. We show that CFI can occur unless the rate at which the beam expands due to finite beam emittance is larger than the CFI growth rate and as long as the role of the competing electrostatic two-stream instability (TSI) is negligible. We also show that the longitudinal energy spread, typical of plasma-based accelerated electron–positron fireball beams, plays a minor role in the growth of CFI in these scenarios.

Keywords

astrophysical plasmasintense particle beamsplasma instabilities
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 84 , Issue 3 , June 2018 , 905840302
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

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