Finite larmor-radius effects on Rayleigh-Taylor instability of a dusty magnetized plasma

This paper discusses the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability of an infinitely conducting medium having an exponential density distribution which includes the effects of finite ion Larmor-radius (FLR) corrections and suspended particles in the presence of a uniform horizontal magnetic field. The relevant equations of the problem are linearized and from the linearized perturbation equations a dispersion relation is obtained, using appropriate boundary conditions. It has been found that the criterion for the stable density stratification remains uninfluenced by the simultaneous inclusion of the FLR corrections and suspended particles. The stability of the medium has been proved for the case of stable stratification when the FLR corrections are not considered in the analysis. The growth rate of unstable RT modes with increasing relaxation frequency of the suspended particles is evaluated analytically. It has been shown that the presence of suspended particles in the medium suppresses the growth rate of the unstable RT modes, thereby implying a stabilizing influence of the particles on the considered configuration.     

Ion-acoustic instability in a dusty negative ion plasma

The ion-acoustic instability in a dusty negative ion plasma is investigated, focusing on the parameter regime in which the negative ion density is much larger than the electron density. The dynamics of the massive dust grains are neglected, but collisions of electrons and ions with dust grains in addition to other collisional processes are taken into account. The presence of a population of charged dust can change the frequency of the fast wave, lead to additional damping due to ion–dust collisions, and change the conditions for wave growth. Applications to dusty negative ion plasmas in the laboratory and in space are discussed.     

Finite Larmor radius and Hall effects on thermosolutal instability of a plasma

The thermosolutal instability of a plasma with finite Larmor radius and Hall effects is studied. When the instability sets in as stationary convection, finite Larmor radius effects are always stabilizing forx(=k ² d ²/² greater than two and forx less than two, they have a stabilizing or destabilizing influence depending on the Larmor radius parameterN in the presence of Hall currents. On the other hand the Hall currents have both stabilizing and destabilizing effects on the thermosolutal instability forx less than two and forx greater than two depending on the Hall parameterM. The stable solute gradient is found to have a stabilizing effect on stationary convection. The case of overstability is also considered wherein the sufficient conditions for the non-existence of overstability are derived.     

Effects of low-frequency instability on the Hall conductivity in plasma: Applications to astrophysics and space physics

In the experiment presently described (which is the continuation of our previous work) we studied the effect of low-frequency drift wave instability on Hall conductivity in plasma. Using an external oscillation we can affect the drift wave amplitude (mainly around resonance), and the variation on Hall conductivity is observed. The effect is probably to be attributed to electron trapping by the waves potential. Good agreement between experimental and calculated values of azimuthal drift currents near and away from resonance lead us to believe that the proposed explanation by electron trapping is correct.In addition, the interaction of plasma with the magnetic field is important in a large variety of astrophysical phenomena. A large class of solar and magnetospheric phenomena involve the conversion of stored magnetic energy to thermal and kinetic energy of the plasma with mechanism in which important role have the plasma's conductivity. Accordingly, this experimental work must be considered as a good laboratory simulation to solar plasma devices.     

Nonlinear propagation of dust-acoustic waves in a magnetized nonextensive dusty plasma

A theoretical investigation has been made of obliquely propagating dust-acoustic solitary waves in a magnetized three-component dusty plasma, which consists of a negatively charged dust fluid, ions, and nonextensive electrons. The reductive perturbation method has been employed to derive the Korteweg-de Vries equation which admits a solitary wave solution. It has been shown that the combined effects of external magnetic field (obliqueness), ions, and electron nonextensivity change the behavior of these electrostatic solitary structures that have been found to exist with positive and negative potential in this dusty plasma model. The implications of our results in astrophysical and cosmological scenarios like vicinity of the Moon, magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, dark-matter halos, hadronic matter, quark-gluon plasma, protoneutron stars, stellar polytropes etc. have been mentioned.     

Effect of low-frequency instability on hall conductivity in plasma

In the present experiment which is the continuation previous our work we study the effect of low-frequency drift wave instability on Hall conductivity in plasma. Using an external oscillation we can affect on the drift wave amplitude (mainly around resonance) and the variation on Hall conductivity is observed. The effect is probably attributed to electron trapping by the wave potential. Good agreement between experimental and calculated values of azimuthal drift currents on the resonance and away from resonance, lead us to believe that the proposed explanation by electron trapping is correct.     

Modified Jeans instability of magnetized viscous spin 1/2 quantum plasma with resistive effects and Hall current

Properties of ion acoustic solitons head-on collision in an ultracold neutral plasma composed of ion fluid and non-Maxwellian electron distributions are investigated. For this purpose, the extended Poincare-Lighthill-Kuo (PLK) method is employed to derive coupled Kortweg-de Vries (KdV) equations describing the system. The nonlinear evolution equations for the colliding solitons and corresponding phase shifts are investigated both analytically and numerically. It is found that the polarity of the colliding solitons strongly depends on the type of the non-Maxwellian distribution (via nonthermal or superthermal electron distributions). Especially the phase shift due to solitons collision is strongly influenced by the non-Maxwellian distribution. A new critical nonthermal parameter β _c , characterizing the nonthermal electron distribution, and which is not present for superthermal particle distributions, allows the existence of double polarity of the solitons. The phase shift increases below β _c for compressive solitons, but it decreases above β _c for rarefactive soliton. For superthermal distribution the phase shift increases rapidly for low spectral index κ, whereas for higher values of κ, the phase shift decreases smoothly and becomes nearly stable for κ>10. Around β _c and small values of κ, the deviation from the Maxwellian state is strongest, and therefore the phase shift has unexpected behavior due to the presence of more energetic electrons that are represented by the non-Maxwellian distributions. The nonlinear structure, as reported here, could be useful for controlling the solitons that may be created in future ultracold neutral plasma experiments.     

Thermosolutal instability of a partially-ionized Hall plasma in porous medium

The thermosolutal instability of a partially-ionized plasma in porous medium is considered in the presence of a uniform vertical magnetic field to include the effects of collisions and Hall currents. For the case of stationary convection, Hall currents and medium permeability have destabilizing effects whereas the stable solute gradient has stabilizing effect on the system. The collisional effects disappear for stationary convection. The sufficient conditions for the existence of overstability are obtained.     

Rayleigh-Taylor instability of a Hall plasma with arbitrary density gradient

The Rayleigh-Taylor instability of a plasma layer in the presence of a horizontal magnetic field is investigated, taking into account the effects of Hall-currents and an arbitrarily large density gradient. It is shown for the general case that if the density decreases vertically upward, the system is thoroughly stable.For a plasma layer with exponentially varying density an approximate dispersion relation is obtained using the Galerkin's method. An analysis of the roots of the dispersion relation reveals that the Hall-currents loosen the stabilizing influence of the magnetic field and impart instability to the system. For sufficiently large values of the density gradient and the Hall currents the system is throughly destabilized for all perturbations.     

Dust-ion-acoustic solitary waves and their multi-dimensional instability in a magnetized nonthermal dusty electronegative plasma

A rigorous theoretical investigation has been made on multi-dimensional instability of obliquely propagating electrostatic dust-ion-acoustic (DIA) solitary structures in a magnetized dusty electronegative plasma which consists of Boltzmann electrons, nonthermal negative ions, cold mobile positive ions, and arbitrarily charged stationary dust. The Zakharov-Kuznetsov (ZK) equation is derived by the reductive perturbation method, and its solitary wave solution is analyzed for the study of the DIA solitary structures, which are found to exist in such a dusty plasma. The multi-dimensional instability of these solitary structures is also studied by the small-k (long wave-length plane wave) perturbation expansion technique. The combined effects of the external magnetic field, obliqueness, and nonthermal distribution of negative ions, which are found to significantly modify the basic properties of small but finite-amplitude DIA solitary waves, are examined. The external magnetic field and the propagation directions of both the nonlinear waves and their perturbation modes are found to play a very important role in changing the instability criterion and the growth rate of the unstable DIA solitary waves. The basic features (viz. speed, amplitude, width, instability, etc.) and the underlying physics of the DIA solitary waves, which are relevant to many astrophysical situations (especially, auroral plasma, Saturn’s E-ring and F-ring, Halley’s comet, etc.) and laboratory dusty plasma situations, are briefly discussed.     

Nonlinear propagation of dust ion-acoustic waves in dusty multi-ion dense plasma

We have studied the nonlinear propagation of dust ion-acoustic (DIA) waves in a dusty multi-ion dense plasma (with the constituents being degenerate, either non-relativistic or ultra-relativistic) and the propagation of such waves have been investigated by the reductive perturbation method. From the stationary solution of the Korteweg de-Vries (K-dV) equation and Burgers’ equation the nonlinear waves (specially, solitary and shock waves) have been found to be formed in the dusty plasma system under consideration. It has shown that the basic features of these waves are significantly modified by both the positive and negative ions and dust number densities, the degenerate of the constituents. The implications of our results have been briefly discussed.     

Hall effects on thermal hydromagnetic instability of a partially ionized medium

Thermal instability of a finitely conducting hydromagnetic composite medium is considered including the effects of Hall currents and the collisions with neutrals. The equilibrium magnetic field is assumed to be uniform and vertical. For stationary convection, the collissions have no effect, while the Hall currents are found to have a destabilizing effect on the thermal instability. It is further shown that whenM is finite andQ the asymptotic behaviours of the critical Rayleigh number, the critical wave number and the critical temperature gradient remain the same as those obtained by Chandrasekhar whereM is a nondimensional number which includes the Hall current effects andQ stands for the Chandrasekhar number.     

Thermal-convective instability of a composite plasma in a stellar atmosphere with Hall currents

The problem of thermal-convective instability of a hydromagnetic composite plasma in a stellar atmosphere has been studied with Hall effects. The criterion for monotonic instability has been found to be unchanged by the presence of Hall effects.     

Gravitational instability of a Hall plasma in the presence of suspended particles

The gravitational instability of an infinite homogeneous and infinitely conducting selfgravitating gas particle medium in the presence of suspended particles of a Hall plasma is considered. The particular cases of the effects of Hall currents and suspended particles on the waves propagated along and perpendicular to magnetic field have been discussed. Jeans's criterion determines the gravitational instability.     

Thermal-convective instability of a rotating plasma in stellar atmospheres with Hall effect

Thermal-convective instability of a hydromagnetic, composite, rotating, inviscid, and infinitely conducting plasma in a stellar atmosphere has been studied in the presence of Hall currents. It is found that the criterion for monotonic instability holds good in the presence of the effects due to rotation and Hall currents.     

Debye shielding in a dusty plasma

The phenomenon of Debye shielding is investigated in a dusty plasma consisting of Boltzmann electrons and ions, and negatively charged, massive dust grains. Both small and large amplitude electrostatic potentials are considered and a parameter study conducted.     

Larmor radius effects on the instability of a stratified partially-ionized plasma in the presence of Hall currents and magnetic resistivity

Instability of a stratified layer of a partially-ionized plasma has been investigated in the simultaneous presence of the effects of Hall currents, magnetic resistivity, finite Larmor radius (FLR), and viscosity. The ambient magnetic field is assumed to be uniform and acting along the vertical direction. The solution is shown to be characterized by a variational principle, based on it the solution has been obtained for a plasma in which the density is stratified exponentially along the vertical. It is found that the viscosity, friction with neutrals, and FLR have all stabilizing influence on the growth rate of the unstable mode of disturbance. Magnetic resistivity and Hall currents are, however, found to have a destabilizing influence.     

Relativistic effects on parallel whistler-mode propagation and instability

Relativistic effects on parallel whistler-mode propagation and instability are considered analytically in some limiting cases relevant to magnetospheric and/or astrophysical conditions. The corresponding wave dispersion equation for a weakly relativistic anisotropic plasma is expressed in terms of generalized Shkarofsky functions. Asymptotic presentation of these functions is found in the limit of large wave refractive indices. Based on this presentation, a new analytical expression for whistler-mode refractive index is obtained and analysed. It is pointed out that relativistic effects increase the value of anisotropy above which the waves are unstable, in agreement with the results of the earlier numerical analysis. This increase is particularly important for whistler-mode propagation in a rarefied, hot plasma but could be potentially observed in the magnetosphere of the Earth in the region outside the plasmasphere.