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Stability of an anisotropic relativistic plasma in a magnetic field

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

J. Skilling
Affiliation:
Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge

Abstract

The collisionless relativistic Boltzmann equation is used to investigate the stability of a large-scale two-component plasma containing numerically small anisotropic relativistic populations. Although most permitted waves are stable, Alfvén type waves are found to be unstable whenever the anisotropy exceeds O(v A/c). Growth times are estimated as days for supernova remnants and millennia for cosmic ray protons.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

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