‘‘Stabilization’’ of the lower-hybrid-drift instability in finite-β plasmas

The stability properties of the lower-hybrid-drift instability are reexamined for finite-β plasmas. In contrast to previous results, it is found that finite-β does not stabilize the instability in the sense that the growth rate becomes negative. Rather, as β increases, the fastest growing mode shifts to longer wavelengths and makes a transition to an ion-cyclotron mode when the growth rate falls below the ion-cyclotron frequency.