Instability of Nonmonotone Magnetic Equilibria of the Relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell System

TL;DR

This paper investigates the linear instability of certain relativistic plasma equilibria with strong magnetic fields, extending classical results to cases with nonmonotonic particle distributions, which are more complex to analyze.

Contribution

It introduces a new analysis framework for the linear instability of nonmonotone magnetic equilibria in the Relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system, broadening previous stability criteria.

Findings

Established linear instability conditions for nonmonotone equilibria

Extended classical instability results to more complex particle distributions

Provided mathematical analysis for systems without standard sign assumptions

Abstract

We consider the question of linear instability of an equilibrium of the Relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell (RVM) System that has a strong magnetic field. Standard instability results deal with systems where there are fewer particles with higher energies. In this paper we extend those results to the class of equilibria for which the number of particles does not depend monotonically on the energy. Without the standard sign assumptions, the analysis becomes significantly more involved.