Firehose instability in the space plasma with anisotropic Cairns-distribution electrons

Abstract: We study the electron firehose mode propagating parallel to the ambient magnetic field in the space plasma with anisotropic Cairns-distribution electrons. The dispersion relation, the wave frequency and the growth rate of electron firehose mode are derived, and the condition for onset of the firehose instability is obtained. We show that the wave frequency and the growth rate both depend significantly on the parameters, such as the parallel electron beta , the nonthermal parameter Λ and the electron temperature anisotropy Ae , and the anisotropic Cairns-distribution electrons change the instability condition. The numerical analyses show that the wave frequency and the growth rate of the electron firehose mode increase with increase of the parameters. The results may be helpful for understanding the firehose instability in space plasma environments.