Gyrokinetic theory of electrostatic lower-hybrid drift instabilities in a current sheet with guide field

A kinetic electrostatic eigenvalue equation for the lower-hybrid drift instability (LHDI) in a thin Harris current sheet with a guide field is derived based on the gyrokinetic electron and fully kinetic ion(GeFi) description. Three-dimensional nonlocal analyses are carried out to investigate the influence of a guide field on the stabilization of the LHDI by finite parallel wavenumber, kk. Detailed stability properties are first analyzed locally, and then as a nonlocal eigenvalue problem. Our results indicate that at large equilibrium drift velocities, the LHDI is further destabilized by finite kk in the short-wavelength domain. This is demonstrated in a local stability analysis and confirmed by the peak in the eigenfunction amplitude. We find the most unstable modes localized at the current sheet edges, and our results agree well with simulations employing the GeFi code developed by Lin et al. [Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 47, 657 (2005); Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 53, 054013 (2011)]. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.