Collsionless tearing instability in a non-Maxwellian neutral sheet - An integro-differential formulation

In the present investigation, a general integro-differential formalism is derived for the study of the collisionless tearing mode in a highly non-Maxwellian neutral sheet in which both electrons and ions are treated kinetically. The obtained formalism is applied to a specific non-Maxwellian distribution. The dispersion relation for the considered system is determined, taking into account the fundamental harmonic of the orbital frequency. It is found that the dispersion relation is dominated by the electrons. The results are presented in a number of graphs. The growth rates of non-Maxwellian distributions are generally much greater than the growth rate of the conventional isotropic tearing instability.