Three-Dimensional Stability of Thin Current Sheet

在亚暴的生长阶段，地球磁尾中的磁场向反太阳方向伸展，并在南北向方向被压缩。这在中心附近产生了一层薄薄的电流。拟议的研究将检查这些薄电流片的物理特性，并研究在何种条件下电流片可能变得不稳定。电流片的不稳定很可能是能量爆炸释放的原因，也就是所谓的磁子风暴。提出的研究将使用非局部线性稳定性分析的双流体等离子体。研究了几种潜在的不稳定性，包括跨场电流不稳定性、气胀模式不稳定性和各种交换不稳定性。在非局部稳定性分析完成后，将结果推广到可用于检验无碰撞撕裂不稳定性的动力学形式。

During the growth phase of a substorm the magnetic field in the Earth's magnetotail stretches out in the anti-sunward direction and becomes compressed in the N-S direction. This produces a thin sheet of electric current near the center. The proposed research will examine the physics of these thin current sheets and investigate the conditions under which the sheet may become unstable. Instabilities in the current sheet are a likely cause of the explosive release of energy known as a magnetic sub-storm. The proposed research will use a nonlocal linear stability analysis for a two-fluid plasma. Several potential instabilities will be examined, including the Cross-field current Instability, the ballooning mode instability and various interchange instabilities. After the nonlocal stability analysis has been completed the results will be generalized to a kinetic formalism that can be used to examine the collisionless tearing instability.