Non-resonant Streaming Instability driven by Leptons

TL;DR

This paper investigates the non-resonant streaming instability driven by energetic leptons using kinetic plasma simulations, revealing conditions, differences from proton-driven cases, and implications for astrophysical environments with electron acceleration.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed kinetic simulation study of leptonic non-resonant instability and provides an analytic theory explaining the observed phenomena.

Findings

Identifies conditions necessary for leptonic Bell instability.

Highlights differences between leptonic and proton-driven instabilities.

Provides an analytic framework matching simulation results.

Abstract

Using fully-kinetic plasma simulations, we study the non-resonant (Bell) streaming instability driven by energetic leptons. We identify the necessary conditions to drive it and the differences from the standard proton-driven case in both linear and saturated stages. A simple analytic theory is presented to explain simulations. Our findings are crucial for understanding the phenomenology of astrophysical environments where only electrons may be accelerated (e.g., oblique shocks) or where relativistic pairs are produced (e.g., around pulsar wind nebulae).