A survey of fluid and kinetic instabilities relevant to space and laboratory plasmas

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents a brief survey of a variety of plasma modeling techniques applied to several space- and fusion-relevant plasma instabilities that are presently of significant interest. These include simulations of the Weibel instability that occurs in astrophysical and laser plasmas, two-fluid plasma instabilities in fusion concepts such as Z-pinches that occur beyond the well-known magnetohydrodynamic instabilities, the magneto–Rayleigh–Taylor instability that occurs in a range of plasmas from the laboratory to space, the Richtmeyer–Meshkov instability which is an important instability in astrophysical and fusion plasmas, and the gradient-drift instability which is known to occur in ionospheric and magnetospheric plasmas. Recent advances in kinetic and fluid modeling provide the ability to study a wide variety of problems using the model that is best suited for the parameter regimes of interest. Some of the key findings are summarized here.