Open AccessNonlinear electrostatic instabilities in the solar wind
Author(s) -
Gomberoff L.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2008ja013818
Subject(s) - ion , physics , amplitude , ion acoustic wave , instability , nonlinear system , solar wind , plasma , phase velocity , atomic physics , computational physics , acoustic wave , mechanics , optics , quantum mechanics
It is well known that nonlinear electrostatic instabilities can be triggered in a plasma with streaming ion species in the presence of finite‐amplitude Alfvén cyclotron waves. The instability occurs when the phase velocity of linear ion‐acoustic waves propagating forward and backward relative to the supporting ion species become equal owing to the presence of the finite‐amplitude wave. On the other hand, it has been shown recently that nonlinear ion‐acoustic‐like instabilities can also occur when the phase velocity of ion‐acoustic waves propagating forward relative to the supporting ion species become equal to the phase velocity of ion‐acoustic waves propagating backward relative to another supporting ion species. This can occur in a system with one streaming ion species relative to the background plasma and, in a completely different regime, when there is more than one drifting ion species. These instabilities may play a role in the evolution of the fast solar wind.