Understanding Drift Instabilities in Suprathermal Plasmas

Recent research by Ran Guo investigates drift instabilities driven by slab ion temperature gradients in suprathermal plasmas. The study, titled "Drift instabilities driven by slab ion temperature gradient in suprathermal plasmas," was submitted to arXiv on August 24, 2024. The research employs a kinetic method to analyze the linear dispersion relation of these instabilities, presenting it in an integral form that utilizes the standard plasma dispersion function.

Key findings indicate that suprathermal ions can enhance instability at large wavenumbers while suppressing it at smaller wavenumbers. This behavior suggests that the suprathermalization of ions may establish a lower limit for wavenumbers associated with ion temperature gradient (ITG) instabilities. Additionally, the study highlights that the thermal speed ratio significantly influences the intensity of suprathermal effects.

The research also addresses the impact of density inhomogeneity on the ITG instability boundary, providing numerical analyses that contribute to understanding plasma behavior under varying conditions. These findings could have implications for plasma confinement and stability in fusion research, particularly in the context of improving the performance of fusion devices.

For further details, the full paper can be accessed here. The DOI for this research is 10.48550/arXiv.2408.13658.