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Role of the temperature ratio in the linear stability of the quasi‐neutral sheet tearing mode
Author(s) -
Sitnov M. I.,
Malova H. V.,
Sharma A. S.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/97gl03708
Subject(s) - current sheet , substorm , tearing , instability , marginal stability , linear stability , plasma sheet , electron , physics , current (fluid) , electron temperature , ion , magnetic reconnection , flux (metallurgy) , flux tube , magnetic field , atomic physics , magnetohydrodynamics , mechanics , magnetic flux , materials science , magnetosphere , thermodynamics , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , metallurgy
The linear stability criterion of the tearing mode in the magnetotail current sheet with nonzero normal component of the equilibrium magnetic field first obtained by Lembege and Pellat [1982] considered the electrons to be trapped in the current sheet. This condition is significantly modified when electron‐to‐ion temperature ratio is small, due to the contribution of transient orbits to the perturbed electron density integrated over the flux tube. In contrast to the previous result marginal stability may be reached under realistic conditions in the near‐Earth tail current sheet during late substorm growth phase.