Emission of a charged particle propagating in a medium with a curved magnetic
field is reconsidered stressing the analogy between this emission mechanism and
collective Cherenkov-type plasma emission. It is explained how this mechanism
differs from conventional Cherenkov, cyclotron or curvature emission and how it
includes, to some extent, the features of each of these mechanisms. Presence of
a medium supporting subluminous waves is essential for the possibility of wave
amplification by particles streaming along the curved magnetic field with a
finite curvature drift. We suggest an analogy between the curvature drift
emission and the anomalous cyclotron-Cherenkov emission. Treating the emission
in cylindrical coordinates in the plane-wave-like approximation allows one to
compute the single particle emissivity and growth rate of the Cherenkov-drift
instability.
We compare the growth rates calculated using the single particle emissivity
and using the dielectric tensor of one dimensional plasma streaming along the
curved field. In calculating the single particle emissivity it is essential to
know the normal modes of the medium and their polarization which can be found
from the dielectric tensor of the medium.
This emission mechanism may be important for the problem of pulsar radio
emission generation
