Ion waves driven by shear flow in a relativistic degenerate astrophysical plasma

We investigate the existence and propagation of low-frequency (in comparison to ion cyclotron frequency) electrostatic ion waves in highly dense inhomogeneous astrophysical magnetoplasma comprising relativistic degenerate electrons and non-degenerate ions. The dispersion equation is obtained by Fourier analysis under mean-field quantum hydrodynamics approximation for various limits of the ratio of rest mass energy to Fermi energy of electrons, relevant to ultra-relativistic, weakly-relativistic and non-relativistic regimes. It is found that the system admits an oscillatory instability under certain condition in the presence of velocity shear parallel to ambient magnetic field. The dispersive role of plasma density and magnetic field is also discussed parametrically in the scenario of dense and degenerate astrophysical plasmas.