ABSTRACT
The study of low-frequency gradient-driven instabilities in a two-energy component plasma was initiated. The drift-mirror instability is a hybrid caused by the effects of anisotropy and inhomogeneity. In a number of laboratory experiments, in particular, in the theta-pinch with hot electrons, an anisotropic finite–ß plasma is realized. Then low-frequency instabilities of magnetoacoustic waves with an azimuthal phase velocity of the order of the drift velocity are observed. Gradient excitation of the fast magnetoacoustic waves was also discussed in where the influence of a high-frequency turbulence on this instability was considered. One of the essential points in the problem of the Alfven waves in a two-energy component plasma is the modification of the dispersion law of these waves. Resonant interaction of high-energy particles with Alfven waves can lead to quasilinear diffusion in the coordinate and velocity spaces.
