Electromagnetic Instability in Counterstreaming Plasmas

Abstract

It is shown that in a system of two counterstreaming plasmas, the growth rates of the ordinary-mode electromagnetic instability can be several times the plasma frequency even for nonrelativistic velocities. The electromagnetic instability therefore grows faster than the coexisting electrostatic instabilities of the two-stream type, contrary to the common belief that electromagnetic instabilities are only of interest if electrostatic ones are absent.