The mirror and ion cyclotron anisotropy instabilities

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Abstract
The linear dispersion equation for fully electromagnetic waves and instabilities at arbitrary directions of propagation relative to a background magnetic field Bo in a homogeneous Vlasov plasma is solved numerically for bi‐Maxwellian particle distributions. For isotropic plasmas the dispersion and damping of the three modes below the proton cyclotron frequency are studied as functions of βi and Te/Ti. The transport ratios of helicity, cross‐helicity, Alfvén ratio, compressibility, and parallel compressibility are defined. Under the condition that the proton temperature perpendicular to Bo is greater than the parallel temperature, the growth rates and transport ratios of the mirror instability and the ion cyclotron anisotropy instability are examined and compared. Both the proton parallel compressibility and the proton Alfvén ratio are significantly different for the two growing modes.

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