The Laser-Hose Instability

A new instability in laser-plasma interactions is analyzed. The instability arises when a laser pulse propagates through a plasma channel. The pondero-motive force of the head of an initially offset laser pulse distorts the channel so that the back of the laser pulse is pushed further off axis. This wake-like nature of the instability is similar to the beam break-up instabilities of charged particle beams. A dispersion relation is developed and evaluated for different parameter regimes