Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 255001 (2008) [4 pages]Collision-Driven Negative-Energy Waves and the Weibel Instability of a Relativistic Electron Beam in a Quasineutral PlasmaReceived 1 July 2008; published 15 December 2008 A new model describing the Weibel instability of a relativistic electron beam propagating through a resistive plasma is developed. For finite-temperature beams, a new class of negative-energy magnetosound waves is identified, whose growth due to collisional dissipation destabilizes the beam-plasma system even for high beam temperatures. We perform 2D and 3D particle-in-cell simulations and show that in 3D geometry the Weibel instability persists even for collisionless background plasma. The anomalous plasma resistivity in 3D is caused by the two-stream instability. © 2008 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.255001
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.255001
PACS:
52.57.−z, 52.35.−g, 52.40.Mj, 52.65.Rr
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