Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Nov 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004aps..dppjo2004c&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, 46th Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics, 15-19 November, 2004, Savannah, GA. MEETING I
Physics
Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Electrical double layers are localized coherent structures with electric charge layers of opposite signs. We report observations of Debye-scale double layers in the ramp of an interplanetary shock, Saturn's magnetosheath, and the free interplanetary medium. The plasmas in these regions are extremely collisionless. The double layers takes the form of isolated unipolar as well as tripolar electric field pulses. The pulse duration of tripolar pulses observed in Saturn's magnetosheath is in agreement with the inverse Buneman frequency, indicating that the Buneman instability is a good candidate for the generation mechanism. The observed double layers motivated us to investigate the allowed parameter space of double layers which has not been explored before. We found that the allowed potential jump and the width of a monotonic double layer are governed by an inequality, qualitatively similar to the width-amplitude inequality for phase space electron holes. We discuss the possibility that the double layers can exist as large scale structures based on the derived inequality relation.
Chen Li-Jen
Gurnett Donald A.
Kurth William S.
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