Back to Search
Start Over
Simulation of asymmetric solar wind electron distributions.
- Source :
-
Physics of Plasmas . Jun2009, Vol. 16 Issue 6, p062902. 5p. 4 Graphs. - Publication Year :
- 2009
-
Abstract
- The electron distributions detected in the solar wind feature varying degrees of anisotropic high-energy tail. In a recent work the present authors numerically solved the one-dimensional electrostatic weak turbulence equations by assuming that the solar wind electrons are initially composed of thermal core plus field-aligned counterstreaming beams, and demonstrated that a wide variety of asymmetric energetic tail distribution may result. In the present paper, the essential findings in this work are tested by means of full particle-in-cell simulation technique. It is found that the previous results are largely confirmed, thus providing evidence that the paradigm of local electron acceleration to high-energy tail by self-consistently excited Langmuir turbulence may be relevant to the solar wind environment under certain circumstances. However, some discrepancies are found such that the nearly one-sided energetic tail reported in the numerical solution of the weak turbulence kinetic equation is not shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *SOLAR wind
*ELECTRON distribution
*PLASMA gases
*PLASMA waves
*PLASMA dynamics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1070664X
- Volume :
- 16
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Physics of Plasmas
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 42961120
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3085795