Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T07:13:19.528Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Relativistic filamentary equilibria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2010

M. GEDALIN ,
A. SPITKOVSKY ,
M. MEDVEDEV ,
M. BALIKHIN ,
V. KRASNOSELSKIKH ,
A. VAIVADS  and
S. PERRI
M. GEDALIN
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel (gedalin@bgu.ac.il)
A. SPITKOVSKY
Affiliation:
Princeton University, Princeton, USA
M. MEDVEDEV
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA and Niels Bohr International Academy, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen K, Denmark†
M. BALIKHIN
Affiliation:
ACSE, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
V. KRASNOSELSKIKH
Affiliation:
LPCE/CNRS, Orleans, France
A. VAIVADS
Affiliation:
Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden
S. PERRI
Affiliation:
ISSI, Bern, Switzerland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Plasma filamentation is often encountered in collisionless shocks and inertial confinement fusion. We develop a general analytical description of the two-dimensional relativistic filamentary equilibrium and derive the conditions for existence of potential-free equilibria. A pseudopotential equation for the vector-potential is constructed for cold and relativistic Maxwellian distributions. The role of counter-streaming is explained. We present single current sheet and periodic current sheet solutions, and analyze the equilibria with electric potential. These solutions can be used to study linear and nonlinear evolution of the relativistic filamentation instability.

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 77 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 193 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balikhin, M. and Gedalin, M. 2008 Generalization of the harris current sheet model for non-relativistic, relativistic and pair plasmas. J. Plasma Phys. 74, 749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bret, A. 2009 Weibel, two-stream, filamentation, oblique, bell, buneman. . .which one grows faster? Astrophys. J. 699, 990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frederiksen, J., Hededal, C. and Haugbolle, T. 2004 Magnetic field generation in collisionless shocks: pattern growth and transport. Astrophys. J. Lett. 608, L13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hededal, C. and Nishikawa, K. 2005 The influence of an ambient magnetic field on relativistic collisionless plasma shocks. Astrophys. J. Lett. 623, L89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyubarsky, Y. and Eichler, D. 2006 Are gamma-ray burst shocks mediated by the weibel instability? Astrophys. J. 647, 1250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mart'yanov, V. Y., Kocharovsky, V. V. and Kocharovsky, V. V. 2008 Saturation of relativistic weibel instability and the formation of stationary current sheets in collisionless plasma. JETP 107, 1049.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medvedev, M. 2007 Weibel turbulence in laboratory experiments and grb/sn shocks. Astrophys. Space Sci 307, 245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medvedev, M. and Loeb, A. 1999 Generation of magnetic fields in the relativistic shock of gamma-ray burst sources. Astrophys. J. 526, 697.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nishikawa, K.-I., Niemiec, J., Hardee, P. E., Medvedev, M., Sol, H., Mizuno, Y., Zhang, B., Pohl, M., Oka, M. and Hartmann, D. H. 2009 Weibel instability and associated strong fields in a fully three-dimensional simulation of a relativistic shock. Astrophys. J. Lett. 698, L10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pegoraro, F., Bulanov, S., Califano, F. and Lontano, M. 1996 Nonlinear development of the weibel instability and magnetic field generation in collisionless plasmas. Physica Scripta T63, 262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaefer-Rolffs, U. and Tautz, R. C. 2008 The relativistic kinetic weibel instability: comparison of different distribution functions. Phys. Plasmas 15, 2105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva, L. O., Fonseca, R. A., Tonge, J. W., Dawson, J. M., Mori, W. B. and Medvedev, M. V. 2003 Interpenetrating plasma shells: near-equipartition magnetic field generation and nonthermal acceleration. Astrophys. J. 596, L121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitkovsky, A. 2008 On the structure of relativistic collisionless shocks in electron-ion plasmas. Astrophys. J. 673, L39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoon, P. H. 2007 Relativistic weibel instability. Phys. Plasmas 14, 024504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar