Generation of Streaming Beam-Plasma Instability in Variable Lunar Plasma around Moon

TL;DR

This paper analytically investigates how energetic electrons in lunar plasma influence the two-stream instability, revealing their role in modifying dispersion relations and triggering nonlinear phenomena in the lunar environment.

Contribution

It introduces an analytical model of TSI in lunar plasma considering variable energetic electron proportions, highlighting their impact on plasma instability.

Findings

Energetic electrons significantly alter TSI dispersion relations.

Presence of energetic electrons can trigger nonlinear plasma phenomena.

Variable energetic electron proportions influence instability thresholds.

Abstract

Two-stream instability (TSI) is studied analytically in the lunar plasma environment. The electrons in the solar wind constitute the electron-beam and the lunar electron plasma constitutes the background plasma with which the electron-beam interacts to trigger the TSI. The lunar plasma is considered to have a variable proportion of the energetic (hot) electrons, 1% to 25% of the total lunar electrons, along with the bulk thermal (cold) population. The analysis shows that the presence of energetic electrons in the lunar plasma environment modify the TSI dispersion relation and can have a significant impact on the triggering of TSI and are capable of triggering nonlinear phenomena by making the lunar plasma system unstable.