Excitation of kinetic Alfvén waves by fast electron beams
Energetic electron beams, which are ubiquitous in a large variety of active phenomena in space and astrophysical plasmas, are one of the most important sources that drive plasma instabilities. In this paper, taking account of the return-current effect of fast electron beams, kinetic Alfvén wave (KAW) instability driven by a fast electron beam is investigated in a finite-β plasma of Q < β < 1 (where β is the kinetic-to-magnetic pressure ratio and Q ≡ m{sub e} /m{sub i} is the mass ratio of electrons to ions). The results show that the kinetic resonant interaction of beam electrons is the driving source for KAW instability, unlike the case driven by a fast ion beam, where both the kinetic resonant interaction of beam ions and the return-current are the driving source for the KAW instability. KAW instability has a nonzero growth rate in the range of the perpendicular wave number, 0<k{sub ⊥}<k{sub ⊥}{sup u}, and the maximum growth rate, γ {sup m}, occurs between 0.5k{sub ⊥}{sup u}<k{sub ⊥}{sup m}<0.8k{sub ⊥}{sup u}. Both the maximal growing perpendicular wave number k{sub ⊥}{sup m} and the maximal growth rate γ {sup m} depend sensitively on the velocity of electron beam v{sub b} , and the most favorable beam velocity occurs between 8v{sub A} < v{sub b} < 10v{sub A} . On the other hand, the excited KAWs are weakly dispersive with k ρ {sub i} < 1 and have the maximum growth rate at relatively low perpendicular wave numbers in the range 0.3<k{sub ⊥}{sup m}ρ{sub i}<0.6 for a beam velocity v{sub b} < 10v{sub A} . A possible application to the upward electron beams in the terrestrial magnetosphere is briefly discussed.