Journal article
Measuring Collisionless Damping in Heliospheric Plasmas using Field-Particle Correlations
Astrophysical journal. Letters, Vol.826(2), pp.L30-L30
07/06/2016
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8205/826/2/L30
Abstract
An innovative field-particle correlation technique is proposed that uses
single-point measurements of the electromagnetic fields and particle velocity
distribution functions to investigate the net transfer of energy from fields to
particles associated with the collisionless damping of turbulent fluctuations
in weakly collisional plasmas, such as the solar wind. In addition to providing
a direct estimate of the local rate of energy transfer between fields and
particles, it provides vital new information about the distribution of that
energy transfer in velocity space. This velocity-space signature can
potentially be used to identify the dominant collisionless mechanism
responsible for the damping of turbulent fluctuations in the solar wind. The
application of this novel field-particle correlation technique is illustrated
using the simplified case of the Landau damping of Langmuir waves in an
electrostatic 1D-1V Vlasov-Poisson plasma, showing that the procedure both
estimates the local rate of energy transfer from the electrostatic field to the
electrons and indicates the resonant nature of this interaction. Modifications
of the technique to enable single-point spacecraft measurements of fields and
particles to diagnose the collisionless damping of turbulent fluctuations in
the solar wind are discussed, yielding a method with the potential to transform
our ability to maximize the scientific return from current and upcoming
spacecraft missions, such as the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) and Solar
Probe Plus missions.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Measuring Collisionless Damping in Heliospheric Plasmas using Field-Particle Correlations
- Creators
- Kristopher G Klein - University of New HampshireGregory G Howes - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Astrophysical journal. Letters, Vol.826(2), pp.L30-L30
- DOI
- 10.3847/2041-8205/826/2/L30
- ISSN
- 2041-8205
- eISSN
- 2041-8213
- Publisher
- The American Astronomical Society
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 07/06/2016
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984199786702771
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