Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
May 1987
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987nascp2469..287e&link_type=abstract
In NASA. Marshall Space Flight Center Double Layers in Astrophysics p 287-294 (SEE N87-23313 16-88)
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Auroral Arcs, Collisionless Plasmas, Discontinuity, Electric Fields, Mathematical Models, Plasma Layers, Boundary Value Problems, Current Density, Electric Potential, Particle Interactions, Velocity Distribution, Wave Interaction
Scientific paper
At the interface between two plasma clouds with different densities, temperatures, and/or bulk velocities, there are large charge separation electric fields which can be modeled in the framework of a collisionless theory for tangential discontinuities. Two different classes of layers were identified: the first one corresponds to (stable) ion layers which are thicker than one ion Lamor radius; the second one corresponds to (unstable) electron layers which are only a few electron Larmor radii thick. It is suggested that these thin electron layers with large electric potential gradients (up to 400 mV/m) are the regions where large-amplitude electrostatic waves are spontaneously generated. These waves scatter the pitch angles of the ambient plasmasheet electron into the atmospheric loss cone. The unstable electron layers can therefore be considered as the seat of strong pitch angle scattering for the primary auroral electrons.
Evans Silvan D.
Lemaire Joseph
Roth Marcel
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