Abstract
The mechanism for a new instability in magnetized plasmas is presented and a dispersion relation derived. Unstable behavior is shown to result purely from transport processes—feedback between the Nernst effect and the Righi-Leduc heat-flow phenomena in particular—neither hydrodynamic motion nor density gradients are required. Calculations based on a recent nanosecond laser gas-jet experiment [D. H. Froula et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 135001 (2007)] predict growth of magnetic field and temperature perturbations with typical wavelengths of order and characteristic growth times of . The instability yields propagating magnetothermal waves whose direction depends on the magnitude of the Hall parameter.
- Received 13 January 2010
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.175001
© 2010 The American Physical Society