Electromagnetic fluctuation spectrum associated with the drift Alfven-cyclotron instability

Abstract

The present paper investigates the electromagnetic fluctuation spectrum associated with the drift Alfven-cyclotron instability by means of a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation, which may be plausibly associated with a current disruption event. The current disruption event shows localized high-amplitude electromagnetic fluctuations. In recent theories, these fluctuation characteristics are shown to correspond to the drift Alfven-cyclotron instability. A simulation is carried out to clarify this instability. The simulation shows that the drift Alfven-cyclotron instabilities are excited in two frequency regimes, a relatively low frequency mode propagating in a quasi-perpendicular direction while the second high-frequency branch propagating in a predominantly parallel propagation direction, consistent with observations as well as with a recent theory. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4737601]