Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Oct 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000aps..dppbp1063b&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, 42nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics combined with the 10th International Congre
Physics
Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
The solar wind interaction with the moon creates a plasma void which infills and the details of this infilling process are studied in this paper. The evolution of the lunar wake in simplified geometry can be simulated via a 1 1/2D electromagnetic particle-in-cell code. By using a sufficient number of particles per cell, we are able, for the first time, to resolve the full phase space dynamics of both electrons and ions. This simulation begins immediately downstream of the moon, before the solar wind has infilled the wake region, then evolves in the solar wind rest frame. The electrons immediately begin to move into the void but are trapped by two potential wells, thus generating vortices in phase space on both sides of the wake, between which counter-streaming electron beams interact. Ion beams are generated after the lighter electrons have moved into the void, creating a two-stream distribution which mixes in phase space due to the potentials created by the electron two-stream instability. Other structures are also evident. The simulations are consistent with both WIND observations and the results of earlier electrostatic simulations which focus only on the ion dynamics.
Birch Paul
Chapman Sandra
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