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Relativistic filamentary equilibria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2010

M. GEDALIN ,
A. SPITKOVSKY ,
M. MEDVEDEV ,
M. BALIKHIN ,
V. KRASNOSELSKIKH ,
A. VAIVADS  and
S. PERRI
M. GEDALIN
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel (gedalin@bgu.ac.il)
A. SPITKOVSKY
Affiliation:
Princeton University, Princeton, USA
M. MEDVEDEV
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA and Niels Bohr International Academy, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen K, Denmark†
M. BALIKHIN
Affiliation:
ACSE, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
V. KRASNOSELSKIKH
Affiliation:
LPCE/CNRS, Orleans, France
A. VAIVADS
Affiliation:
Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden
S. PERRI
Affiliation:
ISSI, Bern, Switzerland
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Abstract

Plasma filamentation is often encountered in collisionless shocks and inertial confinement fusion. We develop a general analytical description of the two-dimensional relativistic filamentary equilibrium and derive the conditions for existence of potential-free equilibria. A pseudopotential equation for the vector-potential is constructed for cold and relativistic Maxwellian distributions. The role of counter-streaming is explained. We present single current sheet and periodic current sheet solutions, and analyze the equilibria with electric potential. These solutions can be used to study linear and nonlinear evolution of the relativistic filamentation instability.

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 77 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 193 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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