Linear analysis of the gravitational beam-plasma instability

Abstract: We investigate the well-known phenomenon of the beam-plasma instability in the gravitational sector, when a fast population of particles interacts with the massive scalar mode of an Horndeski theory of gravity, resulting into the linear growth of the latter amplitude. Following the approach used in the standard electromagnetic case, we start from the dielectric representation of the gravitational plasma, as introduced in a previous analysis of the Landau damping for the scalar Horndeski mode. Then, we set up the modified Vlasov-Einstein equation, using at first a Dirac delta function to describe the fast beam distribution. This way, we provide an analytical expression for the dispersion relation and we demonstrate the existence of non-zero growth rate for the linear evolution of the Horndeski scalar mode. A numerical investigation is then performed with a trapezoidal beam distribution function, which confirms the analytical results and allows to demonstrate how the growth rate decreases as the beam spread increases.