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Compensated-current instability of kinetic Alfvén waves

De Keyser, J.; Malovichko, P.; Voitenko, Y.

We study a non-resonant instability of kinetic Alfvén waves (KAWs) driven by compensated currents. Such currents set up in response to energetic ion beams occurring in many space and astrophysical plasmas, like foreshock regions in the solar wind and around supernova remnants. Kinetic effects of the background ion gyroradius make the KAW instabili…