Physics of the long-term evolution of the Weibel instability (WI) of an electron beam propagating through the plasma is described. Several phenomena occurring during the WI are identified: (i) the exponential growth stage resulting in beam breakup into small current filaments; (ii) merger of the small filaments and beam particles’ trapping inside them; (iii) filaments’ compression and expulsion of the ambient plasma from the filaments; (iv) formation of high-current filaments and their merger. It is shown that during the final stage these beam filaments can carry super-Alfvenic currents and form hollow current density profiles similar to the Hammer–Rostoker equilibrium. This explains why the initially increasing magnetic field energy eventually decreases during the late stage of the instability. Different computational approaches to modeling both collisionless and collisional WI are also described.
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May 2009
Research Article|
March 24 2009
Nonlinear evolution of the Weibel instability of relativistic electron beamsa)
Gennady Shvets;
Gennady Shvets
c)
1Department of Physics and Institute for Fusion Studies,
The University of Texas at Austin
, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
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Oleg Polomarov;
Oleg Polomarov
2Fusion Science Center, Laboratory for Laser Energetics,
University of Rochester
, New York 14623, USA
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Vladimir Khudik;
Vladimir Khudik
1Department of Physics and Institute for Fusion Studies,
The University of Texas at Austin
, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
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Carl Siemon;
Carl Siemon
1Department of Physics and Institute for Fusion Studies,
The University of Texas at Austin
, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
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Igor Kaganovich
Igor Kaganovich
3Plasma Physics Laboratory,
Princeton University
, Princeton, New Jersey 08543, USA
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Phys. Plasmas 16, 056303 (2009)
Article history
Received:
December 12 2008
Accepted:
February 11 2009
Citation
Gennady Shvets, Oleg Polomarov, Vladimir Khudik, Carl Siemon, Igor Kaganovich; Nonlinear evolution of the Weibel instability of relativistic electron beams. Phys. Plasmas 1 May 2009; 16 (5): 056303. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3093477
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