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Stability properties of the electron return current for intense ion beam propagation through background plasma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2011

V.N. Khudik ,
E.A. Startsev  and
R.C. Davidson
V.N. Khudik
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas, Austin, TexasUSA
E.A. Startsev*
Affiliation:
Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
R.C. Davidson
Affiliation:
Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: E.A. Startsev, Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 08543. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

When an intense ion beam propagates through a dense background plasma, its current is partially neutralized by the electron plasma return current. Due to the non-uniformity of the background plasma electrons longitudinal velocity profile (r), the flow can be unstable. The instability is similar to the Kelvin-Helmholz instability for the non-uniform flow of an incompressible neutral fluid, with the electrostatic potential playing the role of pressure. For the case of electron return current flow, the significant new feature is the presence of the partially self-neutralized magnetic field of the ion beam, which significantly affects the evolution of small-amplitude excitations. In this paper the stability properties of the flow of electrons making up the plasma return current is investigated using the macroscopic cold-fluid-Maxwell equations. It is shown that this flow may become unstable, but the instability growth rates are exponentially small. This unstable body mode is qualitatively different from previously studied surface-mode excitations of the electron plasma return current for an intense ion beam with a sharp radial boundary, which is found to be stable due to the stabilizing influence of the partially neutralized magnetic field of the ion beam.

Keywords

Charged-particle beamsTwo-Stream instability
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 2011 , pp. 269 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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