Kinetic Alfvén wave instability driven by field-aligned currents in a low-β plasma

Abstract

Kinetic Alfvén waves (KAWs) can play an important role in the energization of plasma particles and the formation of filamentous structures, which commonly are encountered and frequently accompanied by field-aligned currents in various magneto-plasmas, such as laboratory, auroral, and coronal plasmas. Based on a low-frequency kinetic dispersion equation in frequency ω