The effect of magnetized ions on the lower hybrid drift instability in field reversed configurations.

The high beta regime of the lower hybrid drift instability is studied using a fully electromagnetic dispersion relation in the local approximation. The electrons are described using a kinetic model that includes the effect of finite beta orbit modifications and three different models (unmagnetized, magnetized without VB drifts, and magnetized with VB drifts) are used for the ions. It is found that when magnetized ions without VB drifts are considered, the modes remain unstable for larger values of beta and the spectrum is very different from the unmagnetized ion case. When VB drift effects are included, the results became very similar to the unmagnetized ion case and some arguments are provided to explain this behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]