Fluid modeling of the electron flow driven ion acoustic mode in a collisional plasma with magnetized electrons

A fluid analysis is presented of the ion sound mode in a weakly ionized collisional plasma. The ion-neutral collision frequency exceeds the ion gyrofrequency while the electrons remain magnetized. Under these conditions, an ion sound wave can propagate at arbitrary angles with respect to the direction of the magnetic field. In the presence of an electron flow along the magnetic lines the sound mode can grow. Due to the electron collisions the mode is unstable while ion collisions cause an angle dependent instability threshold which is such that the mode is most easily excited at very large angles. Hot ion effects are included in the study by means of an effective viscosity which effectively describes the ion Landau damping effect. In the presence of an additional light ion specie, the mode frequency and increment in a certain parameter range are increased. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.status: publishe