Kink instability in electron magnetohydrodynamics

Abstract

The paper presents a complete three-dimensional linearized perturbation analysis for a sheared electron flow configuration in the electron magnetohydrodynamic limit. It is shown that the instability criterion in this case is much more relaxed than those of two-dimensional (azimuthally symmetric) modes. It results in a considerable enhancement of the domain of unstable modes in the wave number space. Based on the increased number of unstable modes and the relaxation of the two-dimensional constraint of the existence of two nondissipative square invariants, it can be argued that the three-dimensional case would lead to a highly turbulent state, and may cause significant anomalous damping of the electron flow.