Ion Heating and Flow Driven by an Instability Found in Plasma Couette Flow

J. Milhone, K. Flanagan, J. Egedal, D. Endrizzi, J. Olson, E. E. Peterson, J. C. Wright, and C. B. Forest
Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 185002 – Published 5 May 2021
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Abstract

We present the first observation of instability in weakly magnetized, pressure dominated plasma Couette flow firmly in the Hall regime. Strong Hall currents couple to a low frequency electromagnetic mode that is driven by high-β (>1) pressure profiles. Spectroscopic measurements show heating (factor of 3) of the cold, unmagnetized ions via a resonant Landau damping process. A linear theory of this instability is derived that predicts positive growth rates at finite β and shows the stabilizing effect of very large β, in line with observations.

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  • Received 4 September 2020
  • Revised 10 March 2021
  • Accepted 5 April 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.185002

© 2021 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Plasma Physics

Authors & Affiliations

J. Milhone1, K. Flanagan1, J. Egedal1, D. Endrizzi1, J. Olson1, E. E. Peterson2, J. C. Wright2, and C. B. Forest1

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1150 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
  • 2Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, NW 17 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

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Vol. 126, Iss. 18 — 7 May 2021

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