On the peak level of tearing instability in an ion-scale current sheet: The effects of ion temperature anisotropy

2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (7) ◽  
pp. 510-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.G. Tanaka ◽  
M. Fujimoto ◽  
I. Shinohara
2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 395-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. G. Tanaka ◽  
K. Haijima ◽  
M. Fujimoto ◽  
I. Shinohara

Abstract. How to trigger magnetic reconnection is one of the most interesting and important problems in space plasma physics. Recently, electron temperature anisotropy (αeo=Te⊥/Te||) at the center of a current sheet and non-local effect of the lower-hybrid drift instability (LHDI) that develops at the current sheet edges have attracted attention in this context. In addition to these effects, here we also study the effects of ion temperature anisotropy (αio=Ti⊥/Ti||). Electron anisotropy effects are known to be helpless in a current sheet whose thickness is of ion-scale. In this range of current sheet thickness, the LHDI effects are shown to weaken substantially with a small increase in thickness and the obtained saturation level is too low for a large-scale reconnection to be achieved. Then we investigate whether introduction of electron and ion temperature anisotropies in the initial stage would couple with the LHDI effects to revive quick triggering of large-scale reconnection in a super-ion-scale current sheet. The results are as follows. (1) The initial electron temperature anisotropy is consumed very quickly when a number of minuscule magnetic islands (each lateral length is 1.5~3 times the ion inertial length) form. These minuscule islands do not coalesce into a large-scale island to enable large-scale reconnection. (2) The subsequent LHDI effects disturb the current sheet filled with the small islands. This makes the triggering time scale to be accelerated substantially but does not enhance the saturation level of reconnected flux. (3) When the ion temperature anisotropy is added, it survives through the small island formation stage and makes even quicker triggering to happen when the LHDI effects set-in. Furthermore the saturation level is seen to be elevated by a factor of ~2 and large-scale reconnection is achieved only in this case. Comparison with two-dimensional simulations that exclude the LHDI effects confirms that the saturation level enhancement is due to the ion anisotropy effects, while the LHDI effects shorten the overall time scale significantly. The results imply that the ion temperature anisotropy is one of the key properties that enable large-scale magnetic reconnection to develop in a super-ion-scale current sheet.


2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 1759-1765 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. L. Israelevich ◽  
A. I. Ershkovich

Abstract. We investigated the relation between the geotail current sheet structure and the anisotropy of the ion temperature in the plasma sheet. Current density distribution in the geomagnetic tail is shown not to depend on the ratio between the parallel and perpendicular ion temperature. The tail current sheet bifurcation is controlled by non-gyrotropicity of plasma pressure: double peaked current density distribution is observed when the ion perpendicular temperature exhibits anisotropy, and the electric current density is stronger for larger ratio · (T⊥max−T⊥min)/T⊥. The current sheet thinning is accompanied by the perpendicular temperature anisotropy, and, generally, double-peaked current sheets are thinner than single-peaked sheets.


2014 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
E. E. Scime ◽  
P. A. Keiter ◽  
M. M. Balkey ◽  
J. L. Kline ◽  
X. Sun ◽  
...  

The West Virginia University Hot hELIcon eXperiment (HELIX) provides variable density and ion temperature plasmas, with controllable levels of thermal anisotropy, for space relevant laboratory experiments in the Large Experiment on Instabilities and Anisotropy (LEIA) as well as fundamental studies of helicon source physics in HELIX. Through auxiliary ion heating, the ion temperature anisotropy (T⊥/T∥) is variable from 1 to 20 for parallel plasma beta (β = 8πnkTi∥/B2) values that span the range of 0.0001 to 0.01 in LEIA. The ion velocity distribution function is measured throughout the discharge volume in steady-state and pulsed plasmas with laser induced fluorescence (LIF). The wavelengths of very short wavelength electrostatic fluctuations are measured with a coherent microwave scattering system. Operating at low neutral pressures triggers spontaneous formation of a current-free electric double layer. Ion acceleration through the double layer is detected through LIF. LIF-based velocity space tomography of the accelerated beam provides a two-dimensional mapping of the bulk and beam ion distribution functions. The driving frequency for the m = 1 helical antenna is continuously variable from 8.5 to 16 MHz and frequency dependent variations of the RF coupling to the plasma allow the spontaneously appearing double layers to be turned on and off without modifying the plasma collisionality or magnetic field geometry. Single and multi-species plasmas are created with argon, helium, nitrogen, krypton, and xenon. The noble gas plasmas have steep neutral density gradients, with ionization levels reaching 100% in the core of the plasma source. The large plasma density in the source enables the study of Aflvén waves in the HELIX device.


Author(s):  
Debing Zhang ◽  
Limin Yu ◽  
Erbing Xue ◽  
Xianmei Zhang ◽  
Haijun Ren

Abstract In the nowadays and future fusion devices such as ITER and CFETR, as the use of various heating schemes, the parallel and perpendicular temperature of plasmas can be different; this temperature anisotropy may have significant effects on the turbulence. In this work, the anomalous transport driven by the ion temperature gradient instability is investigated in an anisotropic deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasma. The anisotropic factor $\alpha$, defined as the ratio of perpendicular temperature to parallel temperature, is introduced to describe the temperature anisotropy in the equilibrium distribution function of D. The linear dispersion relation in local kinetic limit is derived, and then numerically evaluated to study the dependence of mode frequency on the anisotropic factor $\alpha$ and the proportion for T particle $\vareT$ by choosing three sets of typical parameters, denoted as the cyclone base case (CBC), ITER and CFETR cases. Based on the linear results, the mixing length model approximation is adopted to analyze the quasi-linear particle and energy fluxes for D and T. It is found that choosing small $\alpha$ and large $\vareT$ is beneficial for the confinement of particle and energy for D and T. This work may be helpful for the estimation of turbulent transport level in the ITER and CFETR devices.


2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (6-8) ◽  
pp. 556-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Togo ◽  
T. Takizuka ◽  
D. Reiser ◽  
K. Hoshino ◽  
K. Ibano ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neeraj Jain ◽  
Joerg Buechner

<p>Spacecraft observations show the radial dependence of the solar wind temperature to be slower than what is expected from the adiabatic cooling of the solar wind expanding radially outwards from the sun. The most viable process considered to explain the observed slower-than-adiabatic cooling is the heating of the solar wind plasma by dissipation of the turbulent fluctuations. In solar wind which is  a collisionless plasma in turbulent state, macroscopic energy is cascaded down to kinetic scales where kinetic plasma processes can finally dissipate the energy into heat. The kinetic scale plasma processes responsible  for the dissipation of energy are, however, not well understood. A number of observational and simulation studies have shown that the heating is concentrated in and around current sheets self-consistently formed at kinetic scales. The current sheets contain free energy sources for the growth of plasma instabilities which can serve as the mechanism of the collisionless dissipation. A detailed information on the free energy sources contained in these current sheets of plasma turbulence is lacking but essential to understand the role of  plasma instabilities in collisionless dissipation.</p><p>We carry out 2-D hybrid simulations of kinetic plasma turbulence to study in detail free energy sources available in the current sheets formed in the turbulence. We focus on three free energy sources, namely, plasma density gradient, velocity gradients for both ions and electrons and ion temperature anisotropy. Our simulations show formation of current sheets in which electric current parallel to the externally applied magnetic field flows in a thickness of the order of an ion inertial length. Inside a current sheet, electron flow velocity dominates ion flow velocity in the parallel direction resulting in a larger cross-gradient of the former. The perpendicular electron velocity inside a current sheet also has variations sharper than the corresponding ion velocity. Cross gradients in plasma density are weak (under 10 % variation inside current sheets). Ion temperature is anisotropic in current sheets. Thus the current in the sheets is primarily due to electron shear flow. A theoretical model to explain the difference between electron and ion velocities in current sheets is developed. Spacecraft observations of electron shear flow in space plasma turbulence will be pointed out.   </p><p>These results suggest that the current sheets formed in kinetic plasma turbulence are close to the force free equilibrium rather than the often assumed Harris equilibrium.  This demands investigations of the linear stability properties and nonlinear evolution of force free current sheets with temperature anisotropy. Such studies can provide effective dissipation coefficients to be included in macroscopic model of the solar wind evolution.   </p>


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