Kelvin–Helmholtz instability and vortices in magnetized plasma

Abstract

Analytic theory and implicit particle simulations are used to describe the evolution of the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability and the plasma vortices driven by a nonuniform E×B flow velocity. Formulas for plasma convection arising from the self‐consistent plasma electric field give the rate of anomalous momentum transport across the magnetic field. The momentum transport is shown to be controlled by the tilting angle of the elliptical vortex with respect to the direction of the parallel flow. Three stages of evolution are investigated and formulas for the final vortex state are given.