On the transition between the Weibel and the whistler instabilities

TL;DR

This paper investigates the transition from Weibel to whistler instabilities in plasma with increasing magnetic fields using numerical solutions of the Vlasov-Maxwell system, revealing nonlinear mode evolution and magnetic field modulation.

Contribution

It provides a numerical analysis of the nonlinear evolution and transition between Weibel and whistler instabilities in plasma with varying ambient magnetic fields.

Findings

Excitation of electromagnetic and electrostatic modes at plasma frequency harmonics.

Long-wavelength modulation of magnetic field in strong ambient magnetic fields.

Demonstration of the nonlinear evolution leading to instability transition.

Abstract

The transition between non resonant (Weibel-type) and resonant (whistler) instabilities is investigated numerically in plasma configurations with an ambient magnetic field of increasing amplitudes. The Vlasov-Maxwell system is solved in a configuration where the fields have three components but depend only on one coordinate and on time. The nonlinear evolution of these instabilities is shown to lead to the excitation of electromagnetic and electrostatic modes at the first few harmonics of the plasma frequency and, in the case of a large ambient magnetic field, to a long-wavelength, spatial modulation of the amplitude of the magnetic field generated by the whistler instability.