Overstability of Plasma Slow Electron Holes

TL;DR

This paper investigates the stability of slow-moving plasma electron holes, identifying conditions under which they remain stable or become overstably oscillatory, with implications for plasma behavior.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the overstability mechanism of plasma electron holes and establishes conditions for their stability based on ion velocity distribution and potential amplitude.

Findings

Electron holes with potential less than 0.01 T0/e are stable against oscillatory instability.

A local minimum in ion velocity distribution is necessary and sufficient for hole stability under most conditions.

Transverse magnetic field effects can induce additional instabilities at finite wavenumbers.

Abstract

Sufficient conditions are found on the ion velocity distribution $f_i$ and potential amplitude for stability of steady electron holes moving at slow speeds, coinciding with the bulk of $f_i$. Fully establishing stability requires calculation of the ion response to shift potential perturbations having an entire range of oscillatory frequencies, because under some conditions real frequencies intermediate between the ion and electron responses prove to be unstable even when the extremes are not. The mechanism of this overstability is explained and calculated in detail. Electron holes of peak potential $\psi$ less than approximately 0.01 times the background temperature ($\psi\lesssim 0.01T_0/e$) avoid the oscillatory instability entirely. For them, the \emph{necessary} condition that there be a local minimum in $f_i$ in which the hole resides is also \emph{sufficient}, unless the magnetic field $B$ is low enough to permit the transverse instability having finite wavenumber $k$ perpendicular to $B$.