On the effect of baryon loading in magnetized counterstreaming plasmas. II. Particle-in-cell simulations

Abstract

AbstractAssuming a non-relativistic three species electron–positron–ion plasma, the counterstreaming instability is investigated for waves propagating parallel and perpendicular to a homogeneous background magnetic field. To support previous analytical investigations (Tautz and Sakai 2007), the instability is investigated by means of self-consistent particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that the presence of a third particle species is responsible for a variety of new features that cannot be seen either from an electron–ion plasma or for an electron–positron plasma.