Linear instability of the Relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system

We consider the Relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system of equations which describes the evolution of a collisionless relativistic plasma. We show that under rather general conditions, one can test for linear instability by checking the spectral properties of Schrodinger-type operators that act only on the spatial variable, not the full phase space. This extends previous results that show linear and nonlinear stability and instability in more restrictive settings.