Effects of Perpendicular Thermal Velocities on the Transverse Instability in Electron Phase Space Holes

A multi-dimensional electron phase-space hole (electron hole) is considered to be unstable to the transverse instability. We perform two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to study the evolutions of electron holes in weakly magnetized plasma (Ω_e <ω_pe, where Ω_e and ω_pe are the electron gyrofrequency and plasma frequency, respectively), and the effects of perpendicular thermal velocities on the transverse instability are investigated. The transverse instability can cause decay of the electron holes. We find that with the increasing perpendicular thermal velocity tending to stabilize the transverse instability, the corresponding wave numbers decrease.