Cyclotron instabilities driven by temperature anisotropy in the solar wind

Abstract

Kinetic plasma instabilities are important for regulating the temperature anisotropies of electrons and ions in solar wind. For the low beta regime, it is known that electromagnetic ion/electron cyclotron instabilities are important, but in the literature these unstable modes are discussed under the assumption of parallel propagation. The present paper extends the analysis to two (or with cylindrical symmetry, three) dimensions. The analysis is further extended to include quasilinear description with the assumption of the bi-Maxwellian velocity distribution function. Such an analysis lays the foundation for an eventual study in which cyclotron instabilities as well as obliquely propagating unstable modes such as the mirror instability are simultaneously taken into account. The present paper first lays down the basis for such future efforts in which the two- or three dimensional linear and quasilinear theories of cyclotron instabilities in the low beta regime are formulated.