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Generalized ion ring instability driven by ions with a partial shell distribution
Author(s) -
Cao J. B.,
Zhou G. C.,
Wang X. Y.
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 - 10.1029/98gl01006
Subject(s) - instability , pitch angle , ion , oblique case , physics , scattering , shell (structure) , ring (chemistry) , computational physics , atomic physics , distribution (mathematics) , mechanics , molecular physics , optics , materials science , chemistry , geophysics , mathematical analysis , quantum mechanics , mathematics , linguistics , philosophy , organic chemistry , composite material
A generalized ion ring instability driven by energetic ions with a shell velocity distribution, which has a central pitch angle at 90°, is studied. We consider waves propagating in both parallel and oblique direction as well as different pitch angle spreads of a partial shell. These unperturbed distributions represent different stages during the time evolution of an ion distribution, that is a ring initially. The evolution is attributed to pitch angle scattering due to wave‐particle interactions. Numerical results obtained by us show that the instability diminishes rapidly, especially for oblique propagation, while the pitch angle spread increase.