Saturation mechanism of the Weibel instability in weakly magnetized plasmas

2005/01/31 by T. Kato, Tsunehiko N. Kato · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Magnetic confinement fusion research #astro-ph #physics.plasm-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.2017942

published as Phys.Plasmas 12 (2005) 080705 · 13 pages, 3 figures, REVTeX. Accepted for publication in Phys. Plasmas

arxiv created 2005/07/19 · openalex publication_date 2005/08/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The saturation mechanism of the Weibel instability is investigated theoretically by considering the evolution of currents in numerous cylindrical beams that are generated in the initial stage of the instability. Based on a physical model of the beams, it is shown that the magnetic field strength attains a maximum value when the currents in the beams evolve into the Alfvén current and that there exist two saturation regimes. The theoretical prediction of the magnetic field strength at saturation is in good agreement with the results of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations for a wide range of initial anisotropy.

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