Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 7, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Spontaneous generation of temperature anisotropy in a strongly coupled magnetized plasma
T Ott1, M Bonitz1, P Hartmann2
1Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Institute for Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Leibnizstraße 15, 24098 Kiel, Germany.
Abstract:
A magnetic field was recently shown to enhance field-parallel heat conduction in a strongly correlated plasma whereas cross-field conduction is reduced. Here we show that in such plasmas, the magnetic field has the additional effect of inhibiting the isotropization process between field-parallel and cross-field temperature components, thus leading to the emergence of strong and long-lived temperature anisotropies when the plasma is locally perturbed. An extended heat equation is shown to describe this process accurately.
Related Concept Videos
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Relaxation Processes
Paramagnetism
Potential Due to a Magnetized Object
The vector...
Magnetostatic Boundary Conditions
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Spin State Population Distribution
Spontaneity

