It is found that the inclusion of the electron inertia effect (parallel to an external magnetic field) can provide a linear coupling between the electrostatic drift and the convective modes in a non-uniform plasma. This coupling leads to new branches of rapidly growing modes, which are calculated in the kinetic as well as in the hydrodynamic regimes. To study the saturation of the linear unstable modes, we account for the mode coupling and derive a set of model nonlinear fluid equations. A perturbation technique is employed to obtain a nonlinear evolution equation. In the steady state, the latter yields the saturated electric potential. It is argued that the enhanced low-frequency fluctuations can cause anomalous particle transport in a magnetoplasma.

The influence of a realistic energy equation on the stability of a cylindrical magnetized plasma in a force-free magnetic field is discussed. Thermal conduction, heating and line radiation are included in the treatment. Explicit growth rates for the m = 0 and m = 1 modes are derived and compared with the standard adiabatic or incompressible time-scales. Finally, the relevance of these results for laboratory and solar plasmas is discussed.

An experimental study of the interaction of a conducting object with a flowing plasma is described. Particular attention is given to the deflection of ions in the sheath of a negatively charged body. The experiments were conducted in a double plasma device in which a relatively weak longitudinal magnetic field may also be present. For the particular conditions used in these experiments, it was found that ion deflection occurs primarily near the edge of the body. A simple physical model is discussed which accounts for the observed dependences of the convergence of ion streams on the body potential and ion beam velocity. A density rarefaction wave is also observed in the wake region, which propagates into the ambient plasma at roughly the ion acoustic Mach angle. Finally, some preliminary observations of the spatial distribution of plasma noise in the wake region are presented.

It is shown that double vortices are a special class of stationary solutions of the set of nonlinear equations that governs the dynamics of modified convective cells and shear Alfvén waves in a cold rotating magnetized plasma. Criteria for the existence of dipole vortices as well as several analytical expressions for the vortex profiles are presented. It is suggested that modified convective cell and Alfvén dipole vortices may cause anomalous cross-field particle transport in a low-β plasma, such as the ionosphere.

An approximate analysis of different types of electromagnetic wave propagation in a weakly relativistic electron plasma is presented. The particular case of wave propagation near the cold plasma cut-offs is considered, and possible applications of the results to diagnostics of magnetospheric parameters are discussed. It is pointed out that wave propagation near plasma resonances in some cases requires relativistic consideration, especially for extraordinary waves. Almost parallel right- and left-hand polarized waves as well as almost perpendicular ordinary and extraordinary wave propagation are considered in detail. It is shown that, in the vicinity of certain frequencies, relativistic effects on the refractive index of these waves cannot be disregarded even when the electron energy is quite small. The problem of wave energy focusing along and perpendicular to the magnetic field is considered with relativistic effects taken into account.

It is shown that for certain values of the parameters of weakly relativistic plasma, the perpendicular ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices are equal. This permits a transformation between these waves when the wave normal angle θ is close but not equal to ½π Explicit formulae for the corresponding transformation coefficients are derived.

The Zakharov equations are derived using the weak turbulence expansion with approximate forms of the nonlinear response tensors from kinetic theory. The method is used to generalize the equations to the magnetized case. The range of validity of the Zakharov model is discussed briefly.

An improved equation is derived for the interchange mode in the limit k‖ = 0. The possibilities are discussed of explosive instabilities and spectrum cascade processes by mode coupling in interchange mode turbulence in two limits.

This paper gives an extensive analytical and numerical characterization of the growth-rate curves (imaginary frequency versus wavenumber) derived from the free electron laser dispersion relation for a warm relativistic electron beam propagating through a constant-amplitude helical magnetic wiggler field. The electron beam is treated as infinite in transverse extent. A detailed mathematical analysis is given of the exact dispersion relation and its Compton approximation for the case of a water-bag equilibrium distribution function (uniform distribution in axial momentum pz). Applicability of the water-bag results to the case of a Gaussian equilibrium distribution in pz is tested numerically. One result of the water-bag analysis is a set of validity conditions for the Compton approximation. Numerical and analytical results indicate that these conditions are applicable to the Gaussian case far outside the parameter range where the individual water-bag and corresponding Gaussian growth rate curves agree.

Three-dimensional, pseudo-spectral computation is used to follow the evolution of a resistive, incompressible magnetofluid. The magnetofluid is confined by rigid, free-slip, perfectly-conducting square boundaries in the x, y directions (‘poloidal’ boundaries), and periodic boundary conditions are assumed in the z direction (‘toroidal’ direction). A constant, uniform d.c. magnetic field B0 is assumed in the z direction and a non-uniform current density j flows along it initially. Starting from a non-equilibrium hollow current profile, the evolution is followed for several tens of Alfvén transit times. Considerable small-scale turbulence develops, which causes energy to decay more rapidly than magnetic helicity. The average toroidal magnetic field at the (x, y) boundary reverses sign spontaneously. The near spatial constancy of the ratio jB/(jB) ≡ cos θ, in the relaxed state at late times, suggests that the state is nearly force-free. However, the ratio j. B/B2 ≡ α is considerably less uniform than is cos θ suggesting more residual disorder than a pure minimum-energy state would display.

In the above mentioned paper, table 1 is incorrect and the correct version is given below. Thus the result which was there obtained, namely that the coefficient of the nonlinear term of the modified KdV equation becomes negative, is not correct and, in fact, the coefficient is always positive.