Centrifugal instability in the regime of fast rotation

R. Gueroult, J. M. Rax, N. J. Fisch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Centrifugal instability, which stems from a difference between the azimuthal angular drift velocity of ions and electrons, is studied in the limit of fast rotation for which ions can rotate up to twice as fast as electrons. As the angular velocity approaches the so-called Brillouin limit, the growth rate for the centrifugal instability in a collisionless solid-body rotating plasma increases markedly and is proportional to the azimuthal mode number. For large wavenumbers, electron inertia effects set in and lead to a cut-off. Interestingly, conditions for the onset of this instability appear to overlap with the operating conditions envisioned for plasma mass separation devices.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number082102
JournalPhysics of Plasmas
Volume24
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Condensed Matter Physics

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