Two-stream and gravitational instabilities in a grain plasma

If the massive component of a two-component plasma consists of weakly charged solid grains, electrostatic and gravitational instabilities can operate on similar spatial and temporal scales. In particular, when the grain charge-to-mass ratio is on the order of the square root of the gravitational constant, the electrostatic two-stream (or Buneman) instability can seed the Jeans gravitational instability, selecting a scale for the resulting condensation. Using particle-in-cell simulations, the behavior of each of these instabilities acting alone in the appropriate limits is verified, and it is shown that when both act in concert a grand equipartition among all available stores of energy is achieved.<
>