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Observation of the Farley‐Buneman Instability in laboratory plasma
Author(s) -
John P. I.,
Saxena Y. C.
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/gl002i006p00251
Subject(s) - instability , physics , plasma , ion , two stream instability , electrojet , electron , atomic physics , equatorial electrojet , plasma instability , plasma oscillation , drift velocity , computational physics , mechanics , magnetic field , quantum mechanics , earth's magnetic field
An experiment simulating certain characteristics of the equatorial electrojet plasma (viz. V e »re V i ≳ ri) is described. High frequency (W ≳ V i > ri) instabilities are observed when electrons stream in the E × B direction past ions with a velocity exceeding the ion acoustic speed. The observed phase velocities and frequencies agree with the results of the Farley‐Buneman instability theory, modified to take account of finite k ∥ . The measured instability spectrum for potential fluctuations goes as k −n ⊥ with n = 2–3.5