Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Mar 1982
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1982phdt.........3f&link_type=abstract
Ph.D. Thesis Minnesota Univ., Minneapolis.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
3
Astrophysics, Magnetohydrodynamic Stability, Particle Beams, Space Plasmas, Distance, Mach Number, Magnetic Fields, Plasma Pinch, Radio Stars, Subsonic Flow, Supersonic Flow
Scientific paper
The stability of a plasma beam traveling through a confining external medium is studied in an astrophysical context. Empirical relations were obtained relating the growth rates of small boundary perturbations to the beam Mach number, the ratio of internal to external sound speed and the perturbation wavenumber. Pinching mode instabilities are found to be the least stable mode for subsonic flow, whereas helical mode instabilities are the least stable for supersonic flow. An axial magnetic field acts to significantly destabilize a beam, over the hydrodynamic case, only if the beam is supersonic and the magnetic field pressure is on the same order, or greater than, the plasma gas pressure. The least stable wave modes, as evaluated by the empirical relations, were used to estimate an upper limit to the distance a beam can travel before non-linear effects become important. Comparing observations of extended extragalactic radio sources with the distance limit provides information on the Mach number and sound speed ratio.
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