A nonlocal coupling mechanism to directly transfer the energy from large-scale Magnetohydrodynamic(MHD) Alfven waves to small-scale kinetic Alfven waves is presented. It is shown that the interaction between a MHD Alfven wave and a reversely propagating kinetic Alfven wave can generate another kinetic Alfven wave, and this interaction exists in the plasmas where the thermal to magnetic pressure ratio is larger than the electron to ion mass ratio. The proposed nonlocal interaction may have a potential application to account for the observed electron scale kinetic Alfven waves in the solar wind and solar corona plasmas.
The parametric decay of finite-size Alfvén waves in nonperiodic low-beta plasmas is investigated using one-dimensional hybrid simulations. Compared with the usual small periodic system, a wave packet in a large system under the absorption boundary condition shows different decay dynamics, including reduced energy transfer and localized density cavitation and ion heating. The resulting Alfvén wave dynamics are influenced by several factors of the instability including the growth rate, central wave frequency, and unstable bandwidth. A final steady state of the wave packet may be achieved when th…
The Alfvén speed and plasma beta in photospheric bright points observed by the Broadband Filter Imager (BFI) of the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) on board the \textit{Hinode} satellite, are estimated seismologically. The diagnostics is based on the theory of slow magnetoacoustic waves in a non-isothermally stratified photosphere with a uniform vertical magnetic field. We identify and track bright points in a G-band movie by using the 3D region growing method, and align them with blue continuum images to derive their brightness temperatures. From the Fourier power spectra of 118 continuum light…
It is shown that in low-beta, weakly collisional plasmas, such as the solar corona, some instances of the solar wind, the aurora, inner regions of accretion discs, their coronae, and some laboratory plasmas, Alfvénic fluctuations produce no ion heating within the gyrokinetic approximation, i.e., as long as their amplitudes (at the Larmor scale) are small and their frequencies stay below the ion Larmor frequency (even as their spatial scales can be above or below the ion Larmor scale). Thus, all low-frequency ion heating in such plasmas is due to compressive fluctuations ("slow modes"). Because…
In the framework of compressional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), we numerically studied the commonly accepted presumption that the Alfvénic turbulence is generated by the collisions between counter-propagating Alfvén waves (AWs). In the conditions typical for the low-beta solar corona and inner solar wind, we launched two counter-propagating AWs in the three-dimensional simulation box and analyzed polarization and spectral properties of perturbations generated before and after AW collisions. The observed post-collisional perturbations have different polarizations and smaller cross-field scales th…
We present results from three-dimensional hybrid-kinetic simulations of Alfvénic turbulence in a high-beta, collisionless plasma. The key feature of such turbulence is the interplay between local wave--wave interactions between the fluctuations in the cascade and the non-local wave-particle interactions associated with kinetic micro-instabilities driven by anisotropy in the thermal pressure (namely, firehose, mirror, and ion-cyclotron). We present theoretical estimates for, and calculate directly from the simulations, the effective collisionality and plasma viscosity in pressure-anisotropic hi…
In this paper, results of 2.5-dimensional magnetohydrodynamical simulations are reported for the magnetic reconnection of non-perfectly antiparallel magnetic fields. The magnetic field has a component perpendicular to the computational plane, that is, guide field. The angle theta between magnetic field lines in two half regions is a key parameter in our simulations whereas the initial distribution of the plasma is assumed to be simple; density and pressure are uniform except for the current sheet region. Alfven waves are generated at the reconnection point and propagate along the reconnected f…
Plasmoid structures in fast reconnection in low-beta plasmas are investigated by two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations. A high-resolution shock-capturing code enables us to explore a variety of shock structures: vertical slow shocks behind the plasmoid, another slow shocks in the outer-region, and the shock-reflection in the front side. The Kelvin-Helmholtz-like turbulence is also found inside the plasmoid. It is concluded that these shocks are rigorous features in reconnection in low-beta plasmas, where the reconnection jet speed or the upstream Alfven speed exceeds the sound speed.
The aim of the present study is to shed light on the effects connected with thermal misbalance due to non-equal cooling and heating rates induced by density and temperature perturbations in solar active regions hosting either propagating torsional or shear Alfvén waves. A description for the nonlinear forces connected with Alfvén waves in non-ideal conditions is provided based on the second order thin flux tube approximation. This provides insight on the effects of Alfvén-induced motions on the boundary of thin magnetic structures in thermally active plasmas. The equations describing the proce…
Plasma ions heating (especially minor heavy ions preferential heating) in fast solar wind and solar corona is an open question in space physics. However, Alfvén waves have been always considered as a candidate of energy source for corona heating. In this paper, by using a two-dimensional (2-D) hybrid simulation model in a low beta electron-proton-alpha plasma system, we have investigated the relationships between plasma ions heating and power spectra evolution of density and magnetic field fluctuations excited from the parametric instabilities of initial pump Alfvén waves with an incoherent sp…
In the previous works harmonic, phase-mixed, Alfven wave dynamics was considered both in the kinetic and magnetohydrodynamic regimes. Up today only magnetohydrodynamic, phase-mixed, Gaussian Alfven pulses were investigated. In the present work we extend this into kinetic regime. Here phase-mixed, Gaussian Alfven pulses are studied, which are more appropriate for solar flares, than harmonic waves, as the flares are impulsive in nature. Collisionless, phase-mixed, dispersive, Gaussian Alfven pulse in transversely inhomogeneous plasma is investigated by particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations and by a…
The aim here is to model the standing torsional oscillations in solar spicules in the presence of density stratification, magnetic field expansion, and steady flows. By implementing cylindrical geometry, the eigenfrequencies, eigenfunctions, and the period ratio P_1/P_2 of these waves is obtained for finite plasma-beta. The shifts created by the steady flow justifies the divergence of the observed period ratio for the first and second periods from the number 2.
Using linear Vlasov theory of plasma waves and quasi-linear theory of resonant wave-particle interaction, the dispersion relations and the electromagnetic field fluctuations of fast and Alfven waves are studied for a low-beta multi-ion plasma in the inner corona. Their probable roles in heating and accelerating the solar wind via Landau and cyclotron resonances are quantified. We assume that (1) low-frequency Alfven and fast waves have the same spectral shape and the same amplitude of power spectral density; (2) these waves eventually reach ion cyclotron frequencies due to a turbulence cascade…
The conversion of fast waves to the Alfven mode in a realistic sunspot atmosphere is studied through three-dimensional numerical simulations. An upward propagating fast acoustic wave is excited in the high-beta region of the model. The new wave modes generated at the conversion layer are analyzed from the projections of the velocity and magnetic field in their characteristic directions, and the computation of their wave energy and fluxes. The analysis reveals that the maximum efficiency of the conversion to the slow mode is obtained for inclinations of 25 degrees and low azimuths, while the Al…
We report the results of a direct comparison between different kinetic models of collisionless plasma turbulence in two spatial dimensions. The models considered include a first principles fully-kinetic (FK) description, two widely used reduced models [gyrokinetic (GK) and hybrid-kinetic (HK) with fluid electrons], and a novel reduced gyrokinetic approach (KREHM). Two different ion beta ($β_i$) regimes are considered: 0.1 and 0.5. For $β_i=0.5$, good agreement between the GK and FK models is found at scales ranging from the ion to the electron gyroradius, thus providing firm evidence for a kin…
We consider ion heating by turbulent Alfven waves (AWs) and kinetic Alfven waves (KAWs) with perpendicular wavelengths comparable to the ion gyroradius and frequencies smaller than the ion cyclotron frequency. When the turbulence amplitude exceeds a certain threshold, an ion's orbit becomes chaotic. The ion then interacts stochastically with the time-varying electrostatic potential, and the ion's energy undergoes a random walk. Using phenomenological arguments, we derive an analytic expression for the rates at which different ion species are heated, which we test by simulating test particles i…
We study properties of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) eigenmodes by decomposing the data of MHD simulations into linear MHD modes - namely the Alfven, slow magnetosonic, and fast magnetosonic modes. We drive turbulence with a mixture of solenoidal and compressive driving, while varying the Alfven Mach number (MA), plasma beta, and the sonic Mach number from sub-sonic to trans-sonic. We find that the proportion of fast and slow modes in the mode mixture increases with increasing compressive forcing. This proportion of the magnetosonic modes can also become the dominant fraction in the mode mixture. …
We present an updated global model of the solar corona, including the transition region. We simulate the realistic tree-dimensional (3D) magnetic field using the data from the photospheric magnetic field measurements and assume the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Alfvén wave turbulence and its non-linear dissipation to be the only source for heating the coronal plasma and driving the solar wind. In closed field regions the dissipation efficiency in a balanced turbulence is enhanced. In the coronal holes we account for a reflection of the outward propagating waves, which is accompanied by generation …
By means of fully kinetic simulations, we investigate electron acceleration during magnetic reconnection in a nonrelativistic proton--electron plasma with conditions similar to solar corona and flares. We demonstrate that reconnection leads to a nonthermally dominated electron acceleration with a power-law energy distribution in the nonrelativistic low-$β$ regime but not in the high-$β$ regime, where $β$ is the ratio of the plasma thermal pressure and the magnetic pressure. The accelerated electrons contain most of the dissipated magnetic energy in the low-$β$ regime. A guiding-center current …
A refined cascade model for kinetic turbulence in weakly collisional astrophysical plasmas is presented that includes both the transition between weak and strong turbulence and the effect of nonlocal interactions on the nonlinear transfer of energy. The model describes the transition between weak and strong MHD turbulence and the complementary transition from strong kinetic Alfven wave (KAW) turbulence to weak dissipating KAW turbulence, a new regime of weak turbulence in which the effects of shearing by large scale motions and kinetic dissipation play an important role. The inclusion of the e…
We examine the dispersive properties of linear fast standing modes in transversely nonuniform solar coronal slabs with finite gas pressure, or, equivalently, finite plasma beta. We derive a generic dispersion relation governing fast waves in coronal slabs for which the continuous transverse distributions of the physical parameters comprise a uniform core, a uniform external medium, and a transition layer (TL) in between. The profiles in the TL are allowed to be essentially arbitrary. Restricting ourselves to the first several branches of fast modes, which are of most interest from the observat…
Resonant interactions between ions and Alfvén/ion-cyclotron (A/IC) waves may play an important role in the heating and acceleration of the fast solar wind. Although such interactions have been studied extensively for "parallel" waves, whose wave vectors ${\bf k}$ are aligned with the background magnetic field ${\bf B}_0$, much less is known about interactions between ions and oblique A/IC waves, for which the angle $θ$ between ${\bf k}$ and ${\bf B}_0$ is nonzero. In this paper, we present new numerical results on resonant cyclotron interactions between protons and oblique A/IC waves in collis…
The MHD slow mode wave has application to coronal seismology, MHD turbulence, and the solar wind where it can be produced by parametric instabilities. We consider analytically how a drifting ion species (e.g. He$^{++}$) affects the linear slow mode wave in a mainly electron-proton plasma, with potential consequences for the aforementioned applications. Our main conclusions are: 1. For wavevectors highly oblique to the magnetic field, we find solutions that are characterized by very small perturbations of total pressure. Thus, our results may help to distinguish the MHD slow mode from kinetic A…
While standing fast sausage modes in flare loops are often invoked to interpret quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) in solar flares, it is unclear as to how they are influenced by the combined effects of a continuous transverse structuring and a finite internal plasma beta ($β_{\rm i}$). We derive a generic dispersion relation (DR) governing linear sausage waves in straight magnetic tubes for which plasma pressure is not negligible and the density and temperature inhomogeneities of essentially arbitrary form take place in a layer of arbitrary width. Focusing on fast modes, we find that $β_{\rm i}…
There have been several ideas proposed to explain how the Sun's corona is heated and how the solar wind is accelerated. Some models assume that open magnetic field lines are heated by Alfven waves driven by photospheric motions and dissipated after undergoing a turbulent cascade. Other models posit that much of the solar wind's mass and energy is injected via magnetic reconnection from closed coronal loops. The latter idea is motivated by observations of reconnecting jets and also by similarities of ion composition between closed loops and the slow wind. Wave/turbulence models have also succee…
Magnetic reconnection in strongly magnetized (low-beta), weakly collisional plasmas is investigated using a novel fluid-kinetic model [Zocco & Schekochihin, Phys. Plasmas 18, 102309 (2011)] which retains non-isothermal electron kinetics. It is shown that electron heating via Landau damping (linear phase mixing) is the dominant dissipation mechanism. In time, electron heating occurs after the peak of the reconnection rate; in space, it is concentrated along the separatrices of the magnetic island. For sufficiently large systems, the peak reconnection rate is $cE_{max}\approx 0.2v_AB_{y,0}$, whe…
The origins of the hot solar corona and the supersonically expanding solar wind are still the subject of debate. A key obstacle in the way of producing realistic simulations of the Sun-heliosphere system is the lack of a physically motivated way of specifying the coronal heating rate. Recent one-dimensional models have been found to reproduce many observed features of the solar wind by assuming the energy comes from Alfven waves that are partially reflected, then dissipated by magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. However, the nonlocal physics of wave reflection has made it difficult to apply these …
Mode conversion occurs when a wave passes through a region where the sound and Alfven speeds are equal. At this point there is a resonance, which allows some of the incident wave to be converted into a different mode. We study this phenomenon in the vicinity of a two-dimensional, coronal null point. As a wave approaches the null it passes from low- to high-beta plasma, allowing conversion to take place. We simulate this numerically by sending in a slow magnetoacoustic wave from the upper boundary; as this passes through the conversion layer a fast wave can clearly be seen propagating ahead. Nu…
The heating, acceleration, and pitch-angle scattering of charged particles by MHD turbulence are important in a wide range of astrophysical environments, including the solar wind, accreting black holes, and galaxy clusters. We simulate the interaction of high-gyrofrequency test particles with fully dynamical simulations of subsonic MHD turbulence, focusing on the parameter regime with beta ~ 1, where beta is the ratio of gas to magnetic pressure. We use the simulation results to calibrate analytical expressions for test particle velocity-space diffusion coefficients and provide simple fits tha…
