Nonlinear Kinetic Development of the Weibel Instability and the generation of electrostatic coherent structures

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nonlinear evolution of the Weibel instability in collisionless plasma, revealing how electromagnetic fields deform electron distributions and generate localized electrostatic structures.

Contribution

It presents a detailed simulation of the nonlinear development of the Weibel instability and its role in forming electrostatic coherent structures in plasma.

Findings

Electromagnetic fields cause filamented magnetic vortices.

Deformations lead to Langmuir mode generation.

Localized electrostatic potential jumps form as a result.

Abstract

The nonlinear evolution of the Weibel instability driven by the anisotropy of the electron distribution function in a collisionless plasma is investigated in a spatially one-dimensional configuration with a Vlasov code in a two-dimensional velocity space. It is found that the electromagnetic fields generated by this instability cause a strong deformation of the electron distribution function in phase space, corresponding to highly filamented magnetic vortices. Eventually, these deformations lead to the generation of short wavelength Langmuir modes that form highly localized electrostatic structures corresponding to jumps of the electrostatic potential.