Kinetic thinning in one-dimensional self-consistent current sheets

Details Kinetic thinning in one-dimensional self-consistent current sheets Kinetic thinning in one-dimensional self-consistent current sheets

Nov 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996jgr...10124899h&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 101, Issue A11, p. 24899-24910

Physics

Plasma Physics

8

Magnetospheric Physics: Current Systems, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosheath, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, Space Plasma Physics: Kinetic And Mhd Theory

Scientific paper

The plasma that enters the region of the magnetotail current sheet can consist of multiple populations, each having a different spatial and temporal history. Processes remote from the current sheet can affect the distribution function of each component. In turn, these populations determine the structure of the current sheet. This interaction provides a purely kinetic mechanism by which ``remote'' processes can influence the current sheet structure. We investigate the effects of such multicomponent distributions on the current sheet, using self-consistent, one-dimensional test particle simulations. We model the system by separating the incoming plasma distribution into two components: a slowly drifting Maxwellian primary population and a low-density secondary population. We then examine the influence of the secondary component by varying the energy and maximum pitch angle of this population. We find that changes in a small fraction of the incoming particle distribution can strongly modify the current sheet structure. In particular, increasing the field alignment or energy of 10% of the incoming particles can lead to significant thinning of the current sheet. This ``kinetic thinning'' is distinct from forces related to the large-scale electric and magnetic fields and suggests that remote processes can have a strong influence on the structure of the magnetotail.

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