Magnetorotational instability of weakly ionized and magnetized electron-positron-ion plasma

The magnetorotational instability in a differential rotating weakly ionized and magnetized plasma consisting of electron, positron, ion, and neutral particles has been investigated by using the multi-fluid model. Satisfying the current neutrality and homogeneity of the system in the equilibrium state by assuming the same unperturbed angular velocity for charge species and neutrals, the general local dispersion relation (DR) has been derived by taking into account the collision effects. By analytical examination of the obtained DR in the arbitrary and high frequency regimes, the instability conditions have been found in which the presence of light positive species (positrons) plays an important role in the instability criteria. Moreover, numerical investigation shows the broadening of instability range as well as increasing the maximum growth rate of instability (especially for the small number density ratio of light to heavy positive species) in the presence of positrons. The obtained results of the present investigation will greatly contribute to the understanding of the particles' dynamics as well as dissipation mechanism in some astrophysical environments, such as the region of accretion disks surrounding the central of black holes and protoplanetary disks. Published by AIP Publishing.