Two-fluid temperature-dependent relativistic waves in magnetized streaming pair plasmas

A. R. Soto-Chavez, S. M. Mahajan, R. D. Hazeltine

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

A relativistic two-fluid temperature-dependent approach for a streaming magnetized pair plasma is considered. Such a scenario corresponds to secondary plasmas created at the polar caps of pulsar magnetospheres. In the model the generalized vorticity rather than the magnetic field is frozen into the fluid. For parallel propagation four transverse modes are found. Two are electromagnetic plasma modes which at high temperature become light waves. The remaining two are Alfvénic modes split into a fast and slow mode. The slow mode is cyclotron two-stream unstable at large wavelengths and is always subluminous. We find that the instability cannot be suppressed by temperature effects in the limit of large (finite) magnetic field. The fast Alfvén mode can be superluminous only at large wavelengths, however it is always subluminous at high temperatures. In this incompressible approximation only the ordinary mode is present for perpendicular propagation. For oblique propagation the dispersion relation is studied for finite and large strong magnetic fields and the results are qualitatively described.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number026403
JournalPhysical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
Volume81
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 10 2010
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
  • Statistics and Probability
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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