Shear-driven Instabilities in Hall-magnetohydrodynamic Plasmas (original) (raw)

The large-scale dynamics of plasmas is well described within the framework of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). However, whenever the ion density of the plasma becomes sufficiently low, the Hall effect is likely to become important. The role of the Hall effect has been studied in several astrophysical plasma processes, such as magnetic reconnection, magnetic dynamo, MHD turbulence or MHD instabilities. In particular, the development of small-scale instabilities is essential to understand the transport properties in a number of astrophysical plasmas.