Detailed Analysis of Filamentary Structure in the Weibel Instability

TL;DR

This paper uses a kinetic Vlasov simulation to analyze filament formation and quasi-equilibrium states in the Weibel instability, providing insights into magnetic field saturation and filament coalescence in collisionless plasmas.

Contribution

It introduces an analytical model for stationary states of the 2D3V Vlasov-Maxwell system that explains filament behavior after magnetic saturation.

Findings

Reproduced key features of the Weibel instability, including filament formation and magnetic saturation.

Identified quasi-equilibrium states of filaments before coalescence.

Developed an analytical solution that models the transition layer in collisionless shocks.

Abstract

We present results of a 2D3V kinetic Vlasov simulation of the Weibel instability. The kinetic Vlasov simulation allows us to investigate the velocity distribution of dilute plasmas, in which the effect of collisions between particles is negligible, and has the advantage that the accuracy of the calculated velocity distribution does not depend on the density of plasmas at each point in the physical space. We succeed in reproducing some features of the Weibel instability shown by other simulations, for example, the exponentially growing phase, the saturation of the magnetic field strength, the formation of filamentary structure, and the coalescence of the filaments. Especially, we concentrate on the behavior of the filaments after the saturation of the magnetic field strength and find that there is a kind of quasi-equilibrium states before the coalescence occurs. Furthermore, it is found that an analytical solution for stationary states of the 2D3V Vlasov-Maxwell system can reproduce some dominant features of the quasi-equilibrium, e.g, the configuration of the magnetic field and the velocity distribution at each point. The analytical expression could give a plausible model for the transition layer of a collisionless shock where a strong magnetic field generated by the Weibel instability provides an effective dissipation process instead of collisions between particles.