Weibel instability in relativistic asymmetric electron positron plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates the Weibel instability in relativistic asymmetric electron-positron plasmas, analyzing how intense electromagnetic waves influence plasma behavior and lead to magnetic field generation, with implications for astrophysical and laboratory plasma conditions.

Contribution

It derives a dispersion relation for anisotropic relativistic pair plasmas and explores the dependence of wave growth rate on electromagnetic wave intensity.

Findings

Growth rate depends strongly on EM wave intensity

Derivation of dispersion relation for anisotropic relativistic pair plasma

Identification of conditions for magnetic field generation

Abstract

We consider a situation in when the interaction of relativistically intense EM waves with an isotropic electron positron plasma takes place, i.e.,we consider short pulse lasers with intensity up to 1021 W/cm2, in which the photon density is of the order of 1030cm3 and the strength of electric field E = 10^9 statvolt/cm. Such a situation is possible in astrophysical and laboratory plasma which are subject to intense laser radiation, thus leading to non thermal equilibrium field radiations. Such interaction of the super-strong laser radiation with an isotropic pair plasma leads to the generation of low frequency electromagnetic EM waves and in particular a quasistationary magnetic field. When the relativistic circularly polarized transverse EM wave propagates along z- axis, it creates a ponderomotive force, which affects the motion of particles along the direction of its propagation. On the other hand, motion of the particles across the direction of propagation is defined by the ponderomotive potential. Moreover dispersion relation for the transverse EM wave using a special distribution function, which has an anisotropic form, is derived and is subsequently investigated for a number of special cases. In general, it is shown that the growth rate of the EM wave strongly depends upon its intensity.