Effects of Coulomb collisions on lower hybrid drift waves inside a laboratory reconnection current sheet

We have developed a local, linear theoretical model for lower hybrid drift waves that can be used for plasmas in the weakly collisional regime. Two cases with typical plasma and field parameters for the current sheet of the magnetic reconnection experiment have been studied. For a case with a low electron beta (β e = 0.25, high guide field case), the quasi-electrostatic lower hybrid drift wave is unstable, while the electromagnetic lower hybrid drift wave has a positive growth rate for a high- β e case (β e = 8.9, low guide field case). For both cases, including the effects of Coulomb collisions reduces the growth rate but collisional impacts on the dispersion and growth rate are limited (≲ 20%).