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Electron heat flux instabilities in the solar wind
Author(s) -
Gary S. Peter,
Feldman W. C.,
Forslund D. W.,
Montgomery M. D.
Publication year - 1975
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/gl002i003p00079
Subject(s) - whistler , physics , solar wind , heat flux , plasma , computational physics , dispersion relation , flux (metallurgy) , electron , geophysics , mechanics , atmospheric sciences , heat transfer , optics , nuclear physics , materials science , metallurgy
There are at least three plasma instabilities associated with the electron heat flux in the solar wind. This letter reports the study of the unstable fast magnetosonic, Alfvén and whistler modes via a computer code which solves the full electromagnetic, linear, Vlasov dispersion relation. Linear theory demonstrates that both the magnetosonic and Alfvén instabilities are candidates for turbulent limitation of the heat flux in the solar wind at 1 A.U.