Journal article
Electron-Driven Instabilities in the Solar Wind
Frontiers in astronomy and space sciences, Vol.9, 951628
08/03/2022
DOI: 10.3389/fspas.2022.951628
Abstract
The electrons are an essential particle species in the solar wind. They often exhibit non-equilibrium features in their velocity distribution function. These include temperature anisotropies, tails (kurtosis), and reflectional asymmetries (skewness), which contribute a significant heat flux to the solar wind. If these non-equilibrium features are sufficiently strong, they drive kinetic micro-instabilities. We develop a semi-graphical framework based on the equations of quasi-linear theory to describe electron-driven instabilities in the solar wind. We apply our framework to resonant instabilities driven by temperature anisotropies. These include the electron whistler anisotropy instability and the propagating electron firehose instability. We then describe resonant instabilities driven by reflectional asymmetries in the electron distribution function. These include the electron/ion-acoustic, kinetic Alfven heat-flux, Langmuir, electron-beam, electron/ion-cyclotron, electron/electron-acoustic, whistler heat-flux, oblique fast-magnetosonic/whistler, lower-hybrid fan, and electron-deficit whistler instability. We briefly comment on non-resonant instabilities driven by electron temperature anisotropies such as the mirror-mode and the non-propagating firehose instability. We conclude our review with a list of open research topics in the field of electron-driven instabilities in the solar wind.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Electron-Driven Instabilities in the Solar Wind
- Creators
- Daniel Verscharen - University College LondonB. D. G. Chandran - University of New HampshireE. Boella - Lancaster University GhanaJ. Halekas - Univ Iowa, Dept Phys & Astron, Iowa, IA USAM. E. Innocenti - Ruhr University BochumV. K. Jagarlamudi - Johns Hopkins UniversityA. Micera - Royal Observ Belgium, Solar Terr Ctr Excellence, Brussels, CA, BelgiumV. Pierrard - Royal Observ Belgium, Solar Terr Ctr Excellence, Brussels, CA, BelgiumS. Stverak - Czech Acad Sci, Inst Atmospher Phys, Prague, Czech RepublicI. Y. Vasko - Univ Calif Berkeley, Space Sci Lab, Berkeley, CA USAM. VelliP. L. Whittlesey - Univ Calif Berkeley, Space Sci Lab, Berkeley, CA USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Frontiers in astronomy and space sciences, Vol.9, 951628
- DOI
- 10.3389/fspas.2022.951628
- ISSN
- 2296-987X
- eISSN
- 2296-987X
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media Sa
- Number of pages
- 25
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/501100000271, name: Science and Technology Facilities Council, award: ST/P003826/1 ST/S000240/1 ST/W001004/1; DOI: 10.13039/100000104, name: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, award: 80NSSC19K0829 NNN06AA01C NNN06AA01C; DOI: 10.13039/501100001659, name: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, award: SFB1491
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/03/2022
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984429042902771
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