Proton random forcing and generation of electron suprathermal tails in the solar wind

Details Proton random forcing and generation of electron suprathermal tails in the solar wind Proton random forcing and generation of electron suprathermal tails in the solar wind

Dec 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agufmsh12a0406a&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #SH12A-0406

Physics

2159 Plasma Waves And Turbulence, 2164 Solar Wind Plasma

Scientific paper

The observed core-halo structure of the electron distribution function in the solar wind can be interpreted in two ways. In the first type of interpretation, the core adjusts adiabatically to the local solar wind conditions while the suprthermal particles results from the collisionless expansion of the coronal plasma (see for example Scudder and Olbert, 1979, JGR, 84, p2755). The second interpretation is fully local, the halo electrons resulting from the particle-wave interactions (see for example, Leubner, 2000, Planet. Sp. Sci., 48, p133), as observed in practically all low density collisionless plasmas. The source of the waves is thought to be found in some non equilibrium feature of the distribution function. In this work we explore this last interpretation, using numerical simulations of the Vlasov - Poisson equations. As in Viñas et al., 2000, APJ, 528, p509, we propose that the souce of the waves able to interact with the thermal electrons is to be found in the cascade from large scale -fluid -fluctuations towards small -kinetic- scales; while Viñas et al., studied the the relaxation of a large scale spatially periodic electric field supposedly resulting from this cascade, here we choose to represent this effect by a random force acting on the protons; the electrons move to maintain charge neutrality and excite a "surprathermal" level of plasma waves which produce a suprathermal tail on the electron distribution function. We discuss the role of the statistical properties (as example the degree of intermittency) of the random force on the efficiency of the production of suprathermal electrons and compare the results with solar wind observations.

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