Electron bounce modes in mirror plasmas

Electron bounce modes can occur in mirror plasmas when the spread in the bounce frequency is small. This condition is satisfied in mirror devices when electrons are principally confined by an approximately quadratic electrostatic potential. These modes are examined by numerically solving an integral equation for the perturbed wave potential in a mirror plasma. A long wavelength mode is found that can be destabilized by ions because of the loss-cone nature of their distribution. Threshold densities and maximum growth rates are calculated using a perturbation method. The theoretical stability threshold predictions agree closely with Baseball II measurements.