The electron-ion streaming instabilities driven by drift velocities of the order of electron thermal velocity in a nonmagnetized plasma

Abstract: We examine the electron-ion streaming instabilities driven by drift velocities of the order of the electron thermal velocity in a nonmagnetized plasma by one-dimensional electrostatic particle-in-cell code which adopts an ion-to-electron mass ratio of 1600. An initial state is set up where the ion bulk speed is zero while the electrons drift relative to ions, and where electrons are much hotter. We examine in detail four runs where drift velocity is systematically varied from lower than to larger than the electron thermal velocity. In all runs the Langmuir waves with Doppler-shifted frequencies dominate early on when streaming instabilities are too weak to discern. And then intense ion-acoustic waves or Buneman instabilities appear, which tend to be accompanied by localized electron and ion beams. Ion-acoustic modes and Buneman modes co-exist in the system when the initial drift velocity is just over the electron thermal speed. Beam modes are excited when the localized beams with large enough velocities appear. In the developed stage of instabilities, the direction in which density depressions propagate is always opposite to that of the localized ion beams. When the initial drift velocity is close to the electron thermal speed, categorizing the relevant instabilities is not easy, and one needs to examine in detail the wave dispersion diagrams at various stages of the evolution of the system.