Magnetic field amplification in anisotropic counterstreaming pair plasmas

摘要

The growth rates of the counterstream instability in magnetized electron-positron plasma is investigated by using a two-dimensional, electromagnetic, and relativistic particle-in-cell code. It is shown that strong electromagnetic ordinary-mode waves are excited, that propagate perpendicularly to the background magnetic field and with electric field parallel to that direction. For these waves, the linear growth rates are determined and compared to previous analytical results by Tautz and Schlickeiser [Phys. Plasmas 13, 062901 (2006)]. The simulations confirm the analytically derived growth rates very well. Furthermore, it is shown that for a strong background magnetic field, the linear instability is suppressed which, again, agrees with previous theoretical considerations. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.