Kinetic theory of low-frequency cross-field instability in a weakly ionized plasma. II

The consistent kinetic approach developed in Paper I [Ya. S. Dimant and R. N. Sudan, Phys. Plasmas 2, 1157 (1995)] is applied to obtain the general dispersion relation of the two-stream ExB instability in collisionally dominated weakly ionized plasmas for wave frequencies small compared to the ion--neutral collision frequency. This dispersion relation covers the whole low-frequency band from the asymptotic short-wave limit studied in Paper I to the long-wave limit. Previous theories employing simplified kinetic theory or fluid equations for electron behavior are only correct in the long-wave limit. The principal new results are that the threshold conditions for this instability and the growth rates are altered from those predicted by earlier simplified theories. copyright 1995 American Institute of Physics