ALBERT

Description: The heat flux instability is an electromagnetic mode excited by a relative drift between the protons and two-component core–halo electrons. The most prominent application may be in association with the solar wind where drifting electron velocity distributions are observed. The heat flux instability is somewhat analogous to the electrostatic Buneman or ion-acoustic instability driven by the net drift between the protons and bulk electrons, except that the heat flux instability operates in magnetized plasmas and possesses transverse electromagnetic polarization. The heat flux instability is also distinct from the electrostatic counterpart in that it requires two electron species with relative drifts with each other. In the literature, the heat flux instability is often called the ‘whistler’ heat flux instability, but it is actually polarized in the opposite sense to the whistler wave. This paper elucidates all of these fundamental plasma physical properties associated with the heat flux instability starting from a simple model, and gradually building up more complexity towards a solar wind-like distribution functions. It is found that the essential properties of the instability are already present in the cold counter-streaming electron model, and that the instability is absent if the protons are ignored. These instability characteristics are highly reminiscent of the electron firehose instability driven by excessive parallel temperature anisotropy, propagating in parallel direction with respect to the ambient magnetic field, except that the free energy source for the heat flux instability resides in the effective parallel pressure provided by the counter-streaming electrons.