Considerations of A Two-Fluid Heliospheric Plasma Dynamics Under Dominant Electron Pressure

Electrons in plasma physics mostly are the underestimated species, since usually they only have to guarantee electric quasineutrality, but don’t count in terms of mass-, momentum-, and energy flows. This is different in space plasmas like the heliospheric plasma, especially the plasma downstream of the solar wind termination shock. Here it has become evident more recently that electrons dominate the plasma pressure and, connected with that, the plasma energy flow. Under these conditions a two-fluid plasma theory is needed to adequately describe fields and flows. We first here develop a pure two-fluid thermodynamics of such two-fluid plasmas and then study the actual situation in case of the heliospheric plasma that the electron pressure is dominating over the proton pressure. Under such auspices the electron pressure determines the mass- and momentum flows of the plasma and in fact decreases with the decrease of bulk velocity of the flow

Hamiltonian kinetic-Hall magnetohydrodynamics with fluid and kinetic ions in the current and pressure coupling schemes

We present two generalized hybrid kinetic-Hall magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) models describing the interaction of a two-fluid bulk plasma, which consists of thermal ions and electrons, with energetic, suprathermal ion populations described by Vlasov dynamics. The dynamics of the thermal components are governed by standard fluid equations in the Hall MHD limit with the electron momentum equation providing an Ohm's law with Hall and electron pressure terms involving a gyrotropic electron pressure tensor. The coupling of the bulk, low-energy plasma with the energetic particle dynamics is accomplished through the current density (current coupling scheme; CCS) and the ion pressure tensor appearing in the momentum equation (pressure coupling scheme; PCS) in the first and the second model, respectively. The CCS is a generalization of two well-known models, because in the limit of vanishing energetic and thermal ion densities, we recover the standard Hall MHD and the hybrid kinetic-ions/fluid-electron model, respectively. This provides us with the capability to study in a continuous manner, the global impact of the energetic particles in a regime extending from vanishing to dominant energetic particle densities. The noncanonical Hamiltonian structures of the CCS and PCS, which can be exploited to study equilibrium and stability properties through the energy-Casimir variational principle, are identified. As a first application here, we derive a generalized Hall MHD Grad–Shafranov–Bernoulli system for translationally symmetric equilibria with anisotropic electron pressure and kinetic effects owing to the presence of energetic particles using the PCS.

Comparative Analysis of the Various Generalized Ohm's Law Terms in Magnetosheath Turbulence as Observed by Magnetospheric Multiscale

<p><span>Electric fields (<strong>E</strong>) play a fundamental role in facilitating the exchange of energy between the electromagnetic fields and the changed particles within a plasma. </span>Decomposing <strong>E</strong> into the contributions from the different terms in generalized Ohm's law, therefore, provides key insight into both the nonlinear and dissipative dynamics across the full range of scales within a plasma. Using the unique, high‐resolution, multi‐spacecraft measurements of three intervals in Earth's magnetosheath from the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, the influence of the magnetohydrodynamic, Hall, electron pressure, and electron inertia terms from Ohm's law, as well as the impact of a finite electron mass, on the turbulent electric field<strong> </strong>spectrum are examined observationally for the first time. The magnetohydrodynamic, Hall, and electron pressure terms are the dominant contributions to <strong>E</strong> over the accessible length scales, which extend to scales smaller than the electron gyroradius at the greatest extent, with the Hall and electron pressure terms dominating at sub‐ion scales. The strength of the non‐ideal electron pressure contribution is stronger than expected from linear kinetic Alfvén waves and a partial anti‐alignment with the Hall electric field is present, linked to the relative importance of electron diamagnetic currents within the turbulence. The relative contributions of linear and nonlinear electric fields scale with the turbulent fluctuation amplitude, with nonlinear contributions playing the dominant role in shaping <strong>E</strong> for the intervals examined in this study. Overall, the sum of the Ohm's law terms and measured <strong>E</strong> agree to within ∼ 20% across the observable scales. The results both confirm a number of general expectations about the behavior of <strong>E</strong> within turbulent plasmas, as well as highlight additional features that may help to disentangle the complex dynamics of turbulent plasmas and should be explored further theoretically.</p>

A hydrodynamical halo model for weak-lensing cross correlations

On the scale of galactic haloes, the distribution of matter in the cosmos is affected by energetic, non-gravitational processes, the so-called baryonic feedback. A lack of knowledge about the details of how feedback processes redistribute matter is a source of uncertainty for weak-lensing surveys, which accurately probe the clustering of matter in the Universe over a wide range of scales. We developed a cosmology-dependent model for the matter distribution that simultaneously accounts for the clustering of dark matter, gas, and stars. We informed our model by comparing it to power spectra measured from the BAHAMAS suite of hydrodynamical simulations. In addition to considering matter power spectra, we also considered spectra involving the electron-pressure field, which directly relates to the thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (tSZ) effect. We fitted parameters in our model so that it can simultaneously model both matter and pressure data and such that the distribution of gas as inferred from tSZ has an influence on the matter spectrum predicted by our model. We present two variants, one that matches the feedback-induced suppression seen in the matter–matter power spectrum at the percent level and a second that matches the matter–matter data to a slightly lesser degree (≃2%). However, the latter is able to simultaneously model the matter–electron pressure spectrum at the ≃15% level. We envisage our models being used to simultaneously learn about cosmological parameters and the strength of baryonic feedback using a combination of tSZ and lensing auto- and cross-correlation data.

Force balance in current sheets

<p>A new form of the proton force balance equation for the plasma consisting of collisionless protons and magnetized electrons is obtained. In the equation, the electric field is expressed through the magnetic field and the divergence of electron pressure tensor. The latter is reqiured for the correct determination of boundary conditions in models of current sheets to control the force balance in the models of that type. From this, a general form of the force balance equation in a one-dimensional current sheet is obtained, and effects of electron pressure anisotropy are considered. We reproduce realistic stationary configurations of current sheets using novel methods of numerical simulations and the Vlasov equation solving. </p>