Secondary drift-driven instabilities in the presence of a parallel-propagating electromagnetic ion cyclotron wave and cold multi-component ions
New research explores the complex interactions between electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves and cold multi-component ions in Earth's magnetosphere.
A recent study published on arXiv investigates the excitation of secondary instabilities, specifically the modified two-stream and ion-ion cross-field instabilities, driven by the electric field of parallel-propagating electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves.
These instabilities arise from inter-species perpendicular polarization drifts in multi-component plasmas, a phenomenon that has been less understood due to challenges in observing cold ions in the magnetosphere.
The research utilizes a fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulation to analyze the impact of these secondary instabilities on both the EMIC wave and the surrounding plasma.
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