F.G.E Pantellini

TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that when the electron temperature Te is of the same order of the proton temperature parallel to the background magnetic field, the growth rate of the Proton mirror mode in the long-wavelength limit is reduced by the presence of a longitudinal electric field.

TL;DR: In this article, a simple model for the formation of stable non-propagating structures in a magnetized collisionless plasma is presented, which is based on the following hypothesis: (1) one dimensionality and spatial periodicity, (2) cold electrons, (3) bi-Maxwellian protons as initial condition, (4), conservation of magnetic moment for all protons, (5) conservation of energy for magnetically non trapped particles, (6) spatial pressure balance, (7) evolved structure has a crenellated shape, and (8)

TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that quasi-linear theory alone does not provide an adequate description of the non-linear evolution of the mirror instability based on a simplified model for the motion of particles in a mirror wave, and the main mechanism which ends the linear phase of the instability has to be particle trapping.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors report on a study of ion velocity distribution functions in regions of mirror wave activity in the Earth's magnetosheath and show similarities to computer simulations and the linear kinetic theory for the instability.

TL;DR: In this article, a simple and powerful way to investigate the linear evolution of particle distribution functions in kinetic instabilities in a homogeneous collisionless plasma is presented, which can be applied to any kind of instability, provided the characteristics (growth rate, frequency, wave vector, and polarization) of the mode are known and can also be used to estimate the amplitude of the waves at the end of the linear phase of growth.