Anisotropic model for resonant heating of ions by Alfvén waves

2013 ◽  
Vol 79 (5) ◽  
pp. 963-971 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. X. ZHANG

AbstractAnisotropic heating of ions by Alfvén waves with frequency in the ion–cyclotron frequency range and propagation parallel to the magnetic field lines is investigated. First, particle–Alfvén wave interactions are quasilinearly examined from the kinetic theory in a hot multi-ion-magnetized plasma. As a result, the parallel and perpendicular heating rates of ions are derived analytically. Then, in terms of this anisotropic heating model and the dispersion relation of magnetic field-aligned left-hand polarized electromagnetic ion–cyclotron–Alfvén (EMICA) waves, the resonant heating of H, 2H, 3H, 3He, and 4He ions in a typical preheated laboratory plasma is numerically studied. It is shown that the EMICA waves can efficiently heat ions through cyclotron resonances primarily in the perpendicular direction. The perpendicular temperatures of H, 2H, 3H, 3He, and 4He increase much faster than the parallel ones. In comparison with the result from the previously developed isotropic heating model, the parallel heating by the EMICA waves is about much weaker, while the perpendicular heating is more efficient. Parameters such as density, temperature, magnetic field, wave-energy density, and ion species can affect the efficiency of the Alfvén wave heating in a similar way as shown in the isotropic heating model. The anisotropic model can be applied to explain the measurements of why O+5 and Mg+9 are heated extreme perpendicularly in solar coronal holes.

1985 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 559-559
Author(s):  
V. A. Mazur ◽  
A. V. Stepanov

It is shown that the existence of plasma density inhomogeneities (ducts) elongated along the magnetic field in coronal loops, and of Alfven wave dispersion, associated with the taking into account of gyrotropy U ≡ ω/ωi ≪ 1 (Leonovich et al., 1983), leads to the possibility of a quasi-longitudinal k⊥ < √U k‖ propagation (wave guiding) of Alfven waves. Here ω is the frequency of Alfven waves, ωi is the proton gyrofrequency, and k is the wave number. It is found that with the parameter ξ = ω2 R/ωi A > 1, where R is the inhomogeneity scale of a loop across the magnetic field, and A is the Alfven wave velocity, refraction of Alfven waves does not lead, as contrasted to Wentzel's inference (1976), to the waves going out of the regime of quasi-longitudinal propagation. As the result, the amplification of Alfven waves in solar coronal loops can be important. A study is made of the cyclotron instability of Alfven waves under solar coronal conditions.


1985 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 559-559
Author(s):  
V. A. Mazur ◽  
A. V. Stepanov

It is shown that the existence of plasma density inhomogeneities (ducts) elongated along the magnetic field in coronal loops, and of Alfven wave dispersion, associated with the taking into account of gyrotropy U ≡ ω/ωi ≪ 1 (Leonovich et al., 1983), leads to the possibility of a quasi-longitudinal k⊥ < √U k‖ propagation (wave guiding) of Alfven waves. Here ω is the frequency of Alfven waves, ωi is the proton gyrofrequency, and k is the wave number. It is found that with the parameter ξ = ω2 R/ωi A > 1, where R is the inhomogeneity scale of a loop across the magnetic field, and A is the Alfven wave velocity, refraction of Alfven waves does not lead, as contrasted to Wentzel's inference (1976), to the waves going out of the regime of quasi-longitudinal propagation. As the result, the amplification of Alfven waves in solar coronal loops can be important. A study is made of the cyclotron instability of Alfven waves under solar coronal conditions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 620 ◽  
pp. A44
Author(s):  
Michael S. Ruderman ◽  
Nikolai S. Petrukhin

We study damping of phase-mixed Alfvén waves propagating in axisymmetric magnetic plasma configurations. We use the linear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations in the cold plasma approximation. The only dissipative process that we take into account is shear viscosity. We reduce the MHD equations describing the Alfvén wave damping to a Klein–Gordon-type equation. We assume that the two terms in this equation, one describing the effect of inhomogeneity and the other the effect of viscosity, are small. Then we use the WKB method to derive the expression describing the wave energy flux attenuation with the height. We apply the general theory to particular equilibria with the exponentially divergent magnetic field lines with the characteristic scale H. The plasma density exponentially decreases with the height with the characteristic scale Hρ. We study the wave damping for typical parameters of coronal plumes and various values of the wave period, the characteristic scale of the magnetic field variation H, and kinematic shear viscosity ν. We show that to have an appreciable wave damping at the height 6H we need to increase shear viscosity by at least six orders of magnitude in comparison with the value given by the classical plasma theory. Another important result is that the efficiency of wave damping strongly depends on the ratio H/Hρ. It increases fast when H/Hρ decreases. We present a physical explanation of this phenomenon.


2020 ◽  
Vol 494 (2) ◽  
pp. 2385-2395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pawan Kumar ◽  
Željka Bošnjak

ABSTRACT We present a model for fast radio bursts (FRBs) where a large-amplitude Alfvén wave packet is launched by a disturbance near the surface of a magnetar, and a substantial fraction of the wave energy is converted to coherent radio waves at a distance of a few tens of neutron star radii. The wave amplitude at the magnetar surface should be about 1011 G in order to produce an FRB of isotropic luminosity 1044 erg s−1. An electric current along the static magnetic field is required by Alfvén waves with non-zero component of transverse wave vector. The current is supplied by counter-streaming electron–positron pairs, which have to move at nearly the speed of light at larger radii as the plasma density decreases with distance from the magnetar surface. The counter-streaming pairs are subject to two-stream instability, which leads to formation of particle bunches of size of the order of c/ωp, where ωp is the plasma frequency. A strong electric field develops along the static magnetic field when the wave packet arrives at a radius where electron–positron density is insufficient to supply the current required by the wave. The electric field accelerates particle bunches along the curved magnetic field lines, and that produces the coherent FRB radiation. We provide a number of predictions of this model.


2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. B. C. Campos ◽  
M. J. S. Silva ◽  
F. Moleiro

The multipolar representation of the magnetic field has, for the lowest-order term, a magnetic dipole that dominates the far field. Thus the far-field representation of the magnetic field of the Earth, Sun and other celestial bodies is a dipole. Since these bodies consist of or are surrounded by plasma, which can support Alfvén waves, their propagation along dipole magnetic field lines is considered using a new coordinate system: dipolar coordinates. The present paper introduces multipolar coordinates, which are an example of conformal coordinates; conformal coordinates are orthogonal with equal scale factors, and can be extended from the plane to space, for instance as cylindrical or spherical dipolar coordinates. The application considered is to Alfvén waves propagating along a circle, that is a magnetic field line of a dipole, with transverse velocity and magnetic field perturbations; the various forms of the wave equation are linear second-order differential equations, with variable coefficients, specified by a background magnetic field, which is force free. The absence of a background magnetic force leads to a mean state of hydrostatic equilibrium, specified by the balance of gravity against the pressure gradient, for a perfect gas or incompressible liquid. The wave equation is simplified to a Gaussian hypergeometric type in the case of zero frequency, otherwise, for non-zero frequency, an extended Gaussian hypergeometric equation is obtained. The solution of the latter specifies the magnetic field perturbation spectrum, and also, via a polarisation relation, the velocity perturbation spectrum; both are plotted, over half a circle, for three values of the dimensionless frequency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2067 (1) ◽  
pp. 012019
Author(s):  
A G Berezutsky ◽  
V N Tishchenko ◽  
A A Chibranov ◽  
I B Miroshnichenko ◽  
Yu P Zakharov ◽  
...  

Abstract In this work, we study the influence of the parameters of a magnetized background plasma on the intensity of whistler waves generated by periodic laser plasma bunches in a magnetic field tube. It is shown that at 0.3 < Lpi > 0.4 Alfvén waves and whistlers are generated. In the region Lpi> 0.5, intense whistlers with an amplitude of δBmax / B0 ∼ 0.24 are generated.


1999 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. B. C. CAMPOS ◽  
N. L. ISAEVA

This paper considers Alfvén waves in a radially stratified medium where all background quantities, namely mass density, magnetic field strength and mean flow velocity, depend only on the distance from the centre, the latter two being assumed to lie in the radial direction. It is shown that the radial dependence of Alfvén waves is the same for two cases: (i) when the velocity and magnetic field perturbations are along parallels, in the one-dimensional case of only radial and time dependence; (ii) in the three-dimensional case with dependence on all three spherical coordinates and time, for velocity and magnetic field perturbations with components along parallels and meridians, represented by the radial components of the vorticity and electric current respectively. Elimination between these equations leads to the convected Alfvén-wave equation in the case of uniform flow, and an equation with an additional term in the case of non-uniform flow with mean flow velocity a linear function of distance. The latter case, namely that of non-uniform flow with flow velocity increasing linearly with distance, is analysed in detail; conservation of mass flux requires the mass density to decay as the inverse cube of the distance. The Alfvén-wave equation has a critical layer where the flow velocity equals the Alfvén speed, leading to three sets of two solutions, namely below, above and across the critical layer. The latter is used to specify the wave behaviour in the vicinity of the critical layer, where local partial transmission occurs. The problem has two dimensionless parameters: the frequency and the initial Alfvén number. It is shown, by plotting the wave fields relative to the critical layer, that these two dimensionless parameters appear in a single combination. This simplifies the plotting of the wave fields for several combinations of physical conditions. It is shown in the Appendix that the formulation of the equations of MHD in the original Elsässer (1956) form, often used in the recent literature, does not apply if the background mass density is non-uniform on the scale of a wavelength. The present theory, based on exact solutions of the Alfvén-wave equation for a inhomogeneous moving medium, is unrestricted as to the relative magnitude of the local wavelength and scale of change of properties of the background medium. The present theory shows that the rate-of-decay of wave amplitude is strongly dependent on wave frequency beyond the critical layer, i.e. the process of change with distance of the spectrum of Alfvén waves in the solar wind starts at the critical layer.


2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 3551-3558 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Dolla ◽  
J. Solomon

Abstract. Alfvén waves and ion-cyclotron absorption of high-frequency waves are frequently brought into models devoted to coronal heating and fast solar-wind acceleration. Signatures of ion-cyclotron resonance have already been observed in situ in the solar wind and in the upper corona. In the lower corona, one can use the line profiles to infer the ion temperatures. But the value of the so-called "non-thermal" (or "unresolved") velocity, potentially related to the amplitude of Alfvén waves propagating in the corona, is critical in firmly identifying ion-cyclotron preferential heating. In a previous paper, we proposed a method to constrain both the Alfvén wave amplitude and the preferential heating, above a polar coronal hole observed with the SUMER/SOHO spectrometer. Taking into account the effect of instrumental stray light before analysing the line profiles, we ruled out any direct evidence of damping of the Alfvén waves and showed that ions with the lowest charge-to-mass ratios were preferentially heated. We re-analyse these data here to correct the derived non-thermal velocity, and we discuss the consequences on the main results. We also include a measure of the Fe VIII 1442.56 Å line width (second order), thus extending the charge-to-mass ratio domain towards ions more likely to experience cyclotron resonance.


2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Prikryl ◽  
G. Provan ◽  
K. A. McWilliams ◽  
T. K. Yeoman

Abstract. Pulsed ionospheric flows (PIFs) in the cusp foot-print have been observed by the SuperDARN radars with periods between a few minutes and several tens of minutes. PIFs are believed to be a consequence of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) reconnection with the magnetospheric magnetic field on the dayside magnetopause, ionospheric signatures of flux transfer events (FTEs). The quasiperiodic PIFs are correlated with Alfvénic fluctuations observed in the upstream solar wind. It is concluded that on these occasions, the FTEs were driven by Alfvén waves coupling to the day-side magnetosphere. Case studies are presented in which the dawn-dusk component of the Alfvén wave electric field modulates the reconnection rate as evidenced by the radar observations of the ionospheric cusp flows. The arrival of the IMF southward turning at the magnetopause is determined from multipoint solar wind magnetic field and/or plasma measurements, assuming plane phase fronts in solar wind. The cross-correlation lag between the solar wind data and ground magnetograms that were obtained near the cusp footprint exceeded the estimated spacecraft-to-magnetopause propagation time by up to several minutes. The difference can account for and/or exceeds the Alfvén propagation time between the magnetopause and ionosphere. For the case of short period ( < 13 min) PIFs, the onset times of the flow transients appear to be further delayed by at most a few more minutes after the IMF southward turning arrived at the magnetopause. For the case of long period (30 – 40 min) PIFs, the observed additional delays were 10–20 min. We interpret the excess delay in terms of an intrinsic time scale for reconnection (Russell et al., 1997) which can be explained by the surface-wave induced magnetic reconnection mechanism (Uberoi et al., 1999). Here, surface waves with wavelengths larger than the thickness of the neutral layer induce a tearing-mode instability whose rise time explains the observed delay of the reconnection onset. The compressional fluctuations in solar wind and those generated in the magnetosheath through the interaction between the solar wind Alfvén waves and the bow shock were the source of magnetopause surface waves inducing reconnection.Key words. Interplanetary physics (MHD waves and turbulence) – Magnetospheric physics (magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions; solar wind-magnetosphere interactions)


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