The stability of an anisotropic plasma jet

The modified Chew-Goldenberger-Low equations have been used to study the stability of a resistive anisotropic plasma jet surrounded by a non-conducting compressible gas. The dispersion relation has been obtained and discussed in three limiting situations: (i) , the resistivity vanishingly small, (ii) and (iii) short and long wavelength perturbations. In some cases, the limiting situations 1 or 1 ( is the ratio of the density of the plasma jet to the density of the exterior gas) have been discussed. The conditions for instability have been obtained. It has been found that the resistivity introduces new modes which make the plasma jet overstable. In the limit of large wavelength disturbances, the jet with finite but high conductivity is found to be unstable. For small wavelength disturbances, the jet is found to be unstable.