Shear flow-driven electrostatic instabilities in low density and low temperature pair-ion plasmas with and without electrons

The shear flow-driven electrostatic instabilities are investigated in ideal low density, low temperature pair-ion-electron and pure pair-ion plasmas in several different cases, including homogeneous and inhomogeneous density effects. In uniform pair-ion-electron plasma, when the shear flow is of the order of the acoustic speed, the purely growing D'Angelo mode can give rise to electrostatic fields. In the case of an inhomogeneous plasma, the drift wave becomes unstable. The presence of negative ions, however, reduces the growth rate. If the positive and negative ions are not in thermal equilibrium with each other, then the shear flow also gives rise to an electrostatic instability in pure pair-ion plasma. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3589474]