ANGEO Annales Geophysicae ANGEO Ann. Geophys. 1432-0576 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/angeo-28-2127-2010 Recent progresses in relativistic beam-plasma instability theory Bret A. 1 Dieckmann M. E. 2 Gremillet L. 3 ETSI Industriales, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain VITA, Department of Science and Technology (ITN), Linköping University, 60174, Norrköping, Sweden CEA, DAM, DIF, 91297 Arpajon, France 24 11 2010 28 11 2127 2132 Copyright: © 2010 A. Bret et al. 2010 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://angeo.copernicus.org/articles/28/2127/2010/angeo-28-2127-2010.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://angeo.copernicus.org/articles/28/2127/2010/angeo-28-2127-2010.pdf

Beam-plasma instabilities are a key physical process in many astrophysical phenomena. Within the fireball model of Gamma ray bursts, they first mediate a relativistic collisionless shock before they produce upstream the turbulence needed for the Fermi acceleration process. While non-relativistic systems are usually governed by flow-aligned unstable modes, relativistic ones are likely to be dominated by normally or even obliquely propagating waves. After reviewing the basis of the theory, results related to the relativistic kinetic regime of the poorly-known oblique unstable modes will be presented. Relevant systems besides the well-known electron beam-plasma interaction are presented, and it is shown how the concept of modes hierarchy yields a criterion to assess the proton to electron mass ratio in Particle in cell simulations.

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