Stability theory in a collisionless plasma

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• Strauss, W (Brown)
• Tuesday 19 October 2010, 14:00-14:45
• Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Mustapha Amrani.

Partial Differential Equations in Kinetic Theories

For a collisionless plasma that is modeled by the relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system, many equilibria are stable but many others are unstable. In this talk, presenting joint work with Zhiwu Lin, I will consider axisymmetric equilibria of the form f(e, p) that are decreasing in the particle energy e and also depend on the particle angular momentum p. Then a necessary and sufficient condition for linear stability is the positivity of a certain linear operator L^{0. This operator L}0 is much less complicated than the generator of the full linearized system. It has an interesting non-local term that can definitely affect its positivity. There is a similar reduction in the simpler case of 1.5 dimensional symmetry. For the important example of a purely magnetic equilibrium, explicit conditions for the linear/nonlinear stability/instability are obtained.

This talk is part of the Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series series.

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