Electron Cyclotron Microinstability in the Foot of a Perpendicular Shock: a Self-consistent PIC Simulation

Statistics – Computation

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

7839 Nonlinear Phenomena, 7843 Numerical Simulation Studies, 7851 Shock Waves, 7899 General Or Miscellaneous

Scientific paper

A few decades ago it was argued that the ions which are reflected in perpendicular supercritical shocks might excite various plasma microinstabilities within the shock's foot. Only now, thanks to advances in computational power, are we able to investigate them in a truly self-consistent way, where the instabilities are embedded within the larger frame of an evolving shock structure. With the help of a newly developed Darwin PIC code, we have identified an electron cyclotron microinstability that occurs during the reformation phase of strictly perpendicular shocks at low β i. The instability involves the beam of reflected ions and the ambient electrons. It takes place within the foot itself, exhibits a rapid growth, and propagates along the shock normal towards upstream. Its frequency is comparable to the electron cyclotron frequency and its wavelength shorter than the electron inertia length. The instability basically results from the coupling of electron Bernstein waves with an ion beam mode carried by the reflected ions, whereby we identify it as a variety of the electron cyclotron drift instability [e.g. Forslund et al., 1970]. A dispersion analysis is presented. We discuss the effects of varying parameters, in particular as the fake ion-to-electron mass ratio used in the simulations converges to more realistic values. The connection with the Buneman instability reported in the much higher Mach simulations of [Shimada and Hoshino, 2000] is outlined.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Electron Cyclotron Microinstability in the Foot of a Perpendicular Shock: a Self-consistent PIC Simulation does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Electron Cyclotron Microinstability in the Foot of a Perpendicular Shock: a Self-consistent PIC Simulation, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Electron Cyclotron Microinstability in the Foot of a Perpendicular Shock: a Self-consistent PIC Simulation will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1470099

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.