Plasma Instabilities
Plasma instabilities can be divided into two general groups:
- hydrodynamic instabilities
- kinetic instabilities.
Plasma instabilities are also categorised into different modes:
| Mode (azimuthal wave number) |
Note | Description | Radial modes | Description |
| m=0 | Sausage instability: displays harmonic variations of beam radius with distance along the beam axis |
n=0 | Axial hollowing | |
| n=1 | Standard sausaging | |||
| n=2 | Axial bunching | |||
| m=1 | Sinuous, kink or hose instability: represents transverse displacements of the beam cross-section without change in the form or in a beam characteristics other than the position of its center of mass |
|||
| m=2 | Filamentation modes: growth leads towards the breakup of the beam into separate filaments. |
Gives an elliptic cross-section | ||
| m=3 | Gives a pyriform (pear-shaped) cross-section | |||
Source: Andre Gsponer, "Physics of high-intensity high-energy particle beam propagation in open air and outer-space plasmas" (2004)
Read more about this topic: Plasma Stability