Axford and McKenzie [1992] suggested that the energy released in impulsive reconnection events generates high frequency Alfvén waves. The kinetic equation for spectral energy density of waves is derived in the random phase approximation. Solving this equation we find the wave spectrum with the power law ``-1'' in the low frequency range which is matched to the spectrum above the spectral brake with the power low ``-1.6.'' The heating rate of solar wind protons due to the dissipation of Alfvén waves is obtained.
Nonlinear energy transfer and dissipation in Alfvén wave turbulence are analyzed in the first gyrokinetic simulation spanning all scales from the tail of the MHD range to the electron gyroradius scale. For typical solar wind parameters at 1 AU, about 30% of the nonlinear energy transfer close to the electron gyroradius scale is mediated by modes in the tail of the MHD cascade. Collisional dissipation occurs across the entire kinetic range $k_\perpρ_i\gtrsim 1$. Both mechanisms thus act on multiple coupled scales, which have to be retained for a comprehensive picture of the dissipation range in…
Evolution of the parametric decay instability (PDI) of a circularly polarized Aflvén wave in a turbulent low-beta plasma background is investigated using 3D hybrid simulations. It is shown that the turbulence reduces the growth rate of PDI as compared to the linear theory predictions, but PDI can still exist. Interestingly, the damping rate of ion acoustic mode (as the product of PDI) is also reduced as compared to the linear Vlasov predictions. Nonetheless, significant heating of ions in the direction parallel to the background magnetic field is observed due to resonant Landau damping of the …
We investigate the intermittency of energy dissipation in Alfvenic turbulence by considering the statistics of the coarse-grained energy dissipation rate, using direct measurements from numerical simulations of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence and surrogate measurements from the solar wind. We compare the results to the predictions of the log-normal and log-Poisson random cascade models. We find that, to a very good approximation, the log-normal model describes the probability density function for the energy dissipation over a broad range of scales, but does not accurately describe the scaling e…
We perform 2.5D hybrid simulations with massless fluid electrons and kinetic particle-in-cell ions to study the temporal evolution of ion temperatures, temperature anisotropies and velocity distribution functions in relation to the dissipation and turbulent evolution of a broad-band spectrum of parallel and obliquely propagating Alfvén-cyclotron waves. The purpose of this paper is to study the relative role of parallel versus oblique Alfvén-cyclotron waves in the observed heating and acceleration of minor ions in the fast solar wind. We consider collisionless homogeneous multi-species plasma, …
In this work we used Particle-In-Cell simulations to study the interaction of circularly polarised Alfvén waves with one dimensional plasma density inhomogeneities transverse to the uniform magnetic field (phase mixing) in collisionless plasmas. In our preliminary work we reported discovery of a new electron acceleration mechanism, in which progressive distortion of the Alfvén wave front, due to the differences in local Alfvén speed, generates an oblique (nearly parallel to the magnetic field) electrostatic field. The latter accelerates electrons through the Landau resonance. Here we report a …
In hydrodynamic turbulence, it is well established that the length of the dissipation scale depends on the energy cascade rate, i.e., the larger the energy input rate per unit mass, the more the turbulent fluctuations need to be driven to increasingly smaller scales to dissipate the larger energy flux. Observations of magnetic spectral energy densities indicate that this intuitive picture is not valid in solar wind turbulence. Dissipation seems to set in at the same length scale for different solar wind conditions independently of the energy flux. To investigate this difference in more detail,…
Alfvén waves as excited in black hole accretion disks and neutron star magnetospheres are the building blocks of turbulence in relativistic, magnetized plasmas. A large reservoir of magnetic energy is available in these systems, such that the plasma can be heated significantly even in the weak turbulence regime. We perform high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of counter-propagating Alfvén waves, showing that an $E_{B_{\perp}}(k_{\perp}) \propto k_{\perp}^{-2}$ energy spectrum develops as a result of the weak turbulence cascade in relativistic magnetohydrodynamics and its infinitely ma…
A numerical simulation of kinetic plasma turbulence is performed to assess the applicability of critical balance to kinetic, dissipation scale turbulence. The analysis is performed in the frequency domain to obviate complications inherent in performing a local analysis of turbulence. A theoretical model of dissipation scale critical balance is constructed and compared to simulation results, and excellent agreement is found. This result constitutes the first evidence of critical balance in a kinetic turbulence simulation and provides evidence of an anisotropic turbulence cascade extending into …
We use 2.5-D electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulation code to investigate the acceleration of electrons in solar coronal holes through the interaction of Alfvén waves with an interplume region. The interplume is modeled by a cavity density gradients that are perpendicular to the background magnetic field. The aim is to contribute to explain the observation of suprathermal electrons under relatively quiet sun. Simulations show that Alfvén waves in interaction with the interplume region gives rise to a strong local electric field that accelerates electrons in the direction parallel to the bac…
We study the non-linear interaction of three parallel Alfvén wave packets (AWP) in an initially uniform plasma using 2.5D particle-in-a-cell (PIC) numerical simulations. We aim to help to explain the observation of suprathermal electrons by multiple Alfvén waves collision in regions where these waves are trapped like IAR (Ionospheric Alfvén Resonator), Earth radiation belts or coronal magnetic loops. In the context of APAWI process that have been described by Mottez (2012, 2015), the interaction of two parallel Alfvén waves (AW) generates longitudinal density modulations and parallel electric …
A weakly dispersive sub-range (WDR) of kinetic Alfvén turbulence is distinguished and investigated for the first time in the context of MHD/kinetic turbulence transition. We found perpendicular wavenumber spectra ~ k^{-3} and ~ k^{-4} formed in WDR by strong and weak turbulence of kinetic Alfvén waves (KAWs), respectively. These steep WDR spectra connect shallower spectra in the MHD and strongly dispersive KAW sub-ranges, which results in a specific double-kink (2-k) pattern often seen in observed turbulent spectra. The first kink occurs where MHD turbulence transforms into weakly dispersive K…
A scenario is proposed to explain the preferential heating of minor ions and differential streaming velocity between minor ions and protons observed in the solar corona and in the solar wind. It is demonstrated by test particle simulations that minor ions can be nearly fully picked up by intrinsic Alfvén-cyclotron waves observed in the solar wind based on the observed wave energy density. Both high frequency ion-cyclotron waves and low frequency Alfvén waves play crucial roles in the pickup process. A minor ion can first gain a high magnetic moment through the resonant wave-particle interactio…
Nonlinear relations among frequencies and phases in modulational instability of circularly polarized Alfven waves are discussed, within the context of one dimensional, dissipation-less, unforced fluid system. We show that generation of phase coherence is a natural consequence of the modulational instability of Alfven waves. Furthermore, we quantitatively evaluate intensity of wave-wave interaction by using bi-coherence, and also by computing energy flow among wave modes, and demonstrate that the energy flow is directly related to the phase coherence generation.
The process of particle acceleration by left-hand, circularly polarised inertial Alfven waves (IAW) in a transversely inhomogeneous plasma is studied using 3D particle-in-cell simulation. A cylindrical tube with, transverse to the background magnetic field, inhomogeneity scale of the order of ion inertial length is considered on which IAWs with frequency $0.3 ω_{ci}$ are launched that are allowed to develop three wavelength. As a result time-varying parallel electric fields are generated in the density gradient regions which accelerate electrons in the parallel to magnetic field direction. Dri…
We study the behaviour and properties of the solar wind using a 2.5D Alfvén wave driven wind model. We first systematically compare the results of an Alfvén wave (AW) driven wind model with a polytropic approach. Polytropic magnetohydrodynamic wind models are thermally driven, while Alfvén waves act as additional acceleration and heating mechanisms in the Alfvén wave driven model. We confirm that an AW-driven model is required to reproduce the observed bimodality of slow and fast solar winds. We are also able to reproduce the observed anti-correlation between the terminal wind velocity and the…
It is shown that two circularly polarised Alfvén waves that propagate along the ambient magnetic field in an uniform plasma trigger non oscillating electromagnetic field components when they cross each other. The non-oscilliating field components can accelerate ions and electrons with great efficiency. This work is based on particle-in-cell (PIC) numerical simulations and on analytical non-linear computations. The analytical computations are done for two counter-propagating monochromatic waves. The simulations are done with monochromatic waves and with wave packets. The simulations show parall…
A generation mechanism of super Alfvénic (SPA) waves in multi-ion species plasma is proposed and the associated heavy ion acceleration process is discussed. The SPA waves are thought to play important roles in particle acceleration since they have large wave electric field because of their high phase velocity. It is demonstrated by using full particle-in-cell simulation that large amplitude proton cyclotron waves, excited due to proton temperature anisotropy, nonlinearly destabilize SPA waves through parametric decay instability in a three component plasma composed of electrons, protons, and $…
The collisionless dissipation of anisotropic Alfvénic turbulence is a promising candidate to solve the solar wind heating problem. Extensive studies examined the kinetic properties of Alfvén waves in simple Maxwellian or bi-Maxwellian plasmas. However, the observed electron velocity distribution functions in the solar wind are more complex. In this study, we analyze the properties of kinetic Alfvén waves in a plasma with two drifting electron populations. We numerically solve the linearized Maxwell-Vlasov equations and find that the damping rate and the proton-electron energy partition for kin…
Heliospheric plasma turbulence plays a key role in transferring the energy of large-scale magnetic field and plasma flow fluctuations to smaller scales where the energy can be dissipated, ultimately leading to plasma heating. High-quality measurements of electromagnetic fields and electron velocity distributions by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission in Earth's magnetosheath present a unique opportunity to characterize plasma turbulence and to determine the mechanisms responsible for its dissipation. We apply the field-particle correlation technique to a set of twenty MMS magnetosheath…
Solar wind ions are observed to be heated in the directions perpendicular to the large-scale magnetic field, with preferential heating given to heavy ions. In the solar corona, this heating may be responsible for the generation of the wind itself. It is likely that this heating results from the dissipation of plasma turbulence, but the specific kinetic mechanism that produces these preferential effects is not known. Solar wind turbulence at proton scales is often characterized in terms of highly oblique kinetic Alfvén waves (KAWs), which have been thought to dissipate through the Landau resona…
Dispersive Alfven waves (DAWs) offer, an alternative to magnetic reconnection, opportunity to accelerate solar flare particles. We study the effect of DAW polarisation, L-, R-, circular and elliptical, in different regimes inertial and kinetic on the efficiency of particle acceleration. We use 2.5D PIC simulations to study how particles are accelerated when DAW, triggered by a solar flare, propagates in transversely inhomogeneous plasma that mimics solar coronal loop. (i) In inertial regime, fraction of accelerated electrons (along the magnetic field), in density gradient regions is ~20% by th…
This work is an extension of Kaghashvili [1999] where ion-cyclotron wave dissipation channel for Alfvén waves was discussed. While our earlier study dealt with the mode coupling in the commonly discussed sense, here we study changes in the initial waveform due to interaction of the initial driver Alfvén wave and the plasma inhomogeneity, which are implicitly present in the equations, but were not elaborated in Kaghashvili [1999]. Using a cold plasma approximation, we show how high frequency waves (higher than the initial driver Alfvén wave frequency) are generated in the inhomogeneous solar pl…
Braginskii MHD provides a more accurate description of many plasma environments than classical MHD since it actively treats the stress tensor using a closure derived from physical principles. Stress tensor effects nonetheless remain relatively unexplored for solar MHD phenomena, especially in nonlinear regimes. This paper analytically examines nonlinear damping and longitudinal flows of propagating shear Alfvén waves. Most previous studies of MHD waves in Braginskii MHD considered the strict linear limit of vanishing wave perturbations. We show that those former linear results only apply to Al…
The influence of various kinetic effects (e.g. Landau damping, diffusive and collisional dissipation, and finite Larmor radius terms) on the nonlinear evolution of finite amplitude Alfvenic wave trains in a finite-beta environment is systematically investigated using a novel, kinetic nonlinear Schrodinger (KNLS) equation. The dynamics of Alfven waves is sensitive to the sense of polarization as well as the angle of propagation with respect to the ambient magnetic field. Numerical solution for the case with Landau damping reveals the formation of dissipative structures, which are quasi-stationa…
Phase space holes, double layers and other solitary electric field structures, referred to as time domain structures (TDSs), often occur around dipolarization fronts in the Earth's inner magnetosphere. They are considered to be important because of their role in the dissipation of the injection energy and their potential for significant particle scattering and acceleration. Kinetic Alfvén waves are observed to be excited during energetic particle injections, and are typically present in conjunction with TDS observations. Despite the availability of a large number of spacecraft observations, th…
Collisionless regime kinetic models for coherent nonlinear Alfven wave dynamics are studied using fluid moment equations with an approximate closure anzatz. Resonant particle effects are modelled by incorporating an additional term representing dissipation akin to parallel heat conduction. Unlike collisional dissipation, parallel heat conduction is presented by an integral operator. The modified derivative nonlinear Schrodinger equation thus has a spatially nonlocal nonlinear term describing the long-time evolution of the envelope of parallel-propagating Alfven waves, as well. Coefficients in …
Between the base of the solar corona and the Alfven critical point, the solar-wind density decreases by approximately five orders of magnitude, but the temperature varies by a factor of only a few. In this paper, I show that such quasi-isothermal evolution out to the Alfven critical point is a generic property of outflows powered by reflection-driven Alfven-wave (AW) turbulence, in which outward-propagating AWs partially reflect, and counter-propagating AWs interact to produce a cascade of fluctuation energy to small scales, which leads to turbulent heating. Approximating the sub-Alfvenic regi…
We propose a mechanism whereby the intense, sheet-like structures naturally formed by dynamically aligning Alfvénic turbulence are destroyed by magnetic reconnection at a scale $\hatλ_{\rm D}$, larger than the dissipation scale predicted by models of intermittent, dynamically aligning turbulence. The reconnection process proceeds in several stages: first, a linear tearing mode with $N$ magnetic islands grows and saturates, and then the $X$-points between these islands collapse into secondary current sheets, which then reconnect until the original structure is destroyed. This effectively impose…
An analysis of the Alfven wave generation associated with the barium vapor release at altitudes ~ 5.2 Earth's radii (ER) in the magnetosphere is presented. Such injections were executed in G-8 and G-10 experiments of the Combined Radiation and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) mission. It is shown that the generation of Alfven waves is possible during the total time of plasma expansion. The maximum intensity of these waves corresponds to the time of complete retardation of the diamagnetic cavity created by the expansion of plasma cloud. The Alfven wave exhibits a form of an impulse with an e…
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…
We have developed a simulation model of particle acceleration in coronal shock waves. The model is based on a Monte Carlo method, where particles are traced in prescribed large-scale electromagnetic fields utilizing the guiding center approximation. The particles are scattered in the turbulence according to quasilinear theory, with the scattering amplitude directly proportional to the intensity of Alfvén waves at gyro-resonant wavenumbers. The Alfvén waves are traced simultaneously with the particles, so that the wave field is propagated outwards from the Sun using WKB propagation supplemented…
Context: Typical space plasmas contain spatially and temporally variable turbulent electromagnetic fields. Understanding the transport of energetic particles and the acceleration mechanisms for charged particles is an important goal of today's astroparticle physics. Aims: To understand the acceleration mechanisms at the particle source, subsequent effects have to be known. Therefore, the modification of a particle energy distribution, due to stochastic acceleration, needs to be investigated. Methods: The diffusion in momentum space was investigated by using both a Monte-Carlo simulation code a…
Directly tracking an interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) by widely separated spacecrafts is a great challenge. However, such an event could provide us a good opportunity to study the evolution of embedded Alfvénic fluctuations (AFs) inside ICME and their contributions to local plasma heating directly. In this study, an ICME observed by Wind at 1.0 au on March 4-6 1998 is tracked to the location of Ulysess at 5.4 au. AFs are commonly found inside the ICME at 1.0 au, with an occurrence rate of 21.7% and at broadband frequencies from 4$\times 10^{-4}$ to 5$\times 10^{-2}$ Hz. When the ICM…
Alfvén waves are primal and pervasive in space plasmas and significantly contributes to microscale fluctuations in the solar wind and some heliospheric processes. Here, we demonstrate the first observable distinct feature of Alfvén wave while propagating from magnetic cloud to trailing solar wind. The Walén test is used to confirm their presence in selected regions. The amplitude ratio of inward to outward Alfvén waves is employed to establish their flow direction. The dominant inward flow is observed in magnetic cloud whereas trailing solar wind shows the dominant outward flow of Alfvén waves…
The large-scale magnetic cloud such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) is the fundamental driver of the space weather. The interaction of the multiple CMEs in interplanetary space affects their dynamic evolution and geo-effectiveness. The complex and merged multiple magnetic clouds appear as the in-situ signature of the interacting CMEs. The Alfven waves are speculated to be one of the major possible energy exchange/dissipation mechanism during the interaction. However, no such observational evidence has been found in the literature. The case studies of CME-CME collision events suggest that the …
We solve numerically ideal, 2.5D, MHD equations in Cartesian coordinates, with a plasma beta of 0.0001 starting from the equilibrium that mimics a footpoint of a large curvature radius solar coronal loop or a polar region plume. On top of such an equilibrium, a purely Alfvénic, linearly polarised, plane wave is launched. In the context of the coronal heating problem a new two stage mechanism of plasma heating is presented by putting emphasis, first, on the generation of parallel electric fields within an ideal MHD description directly, rather than focusing on the enhanced dissipation mechanism…
As fundamental parameters of the Sun, the Alfvén radius and angular momentum loss determine how the solar wind changes from sub-Alfvénic to super-Alfvénic and how the Sun spins down. We present an approach to determining the solar wind angular momentum flux based on observations from Parker Solar Probe (PSP). A flux of about $0.15\times10^{30}$ dyn cm sr$^{-1}$ near the ecliptic plane and 0.7:1 partition of that flux between the particles and magnetic field are obtained by averaging data from the first four encounters within 0.3 au from the Sun. The angular momentum flux and its particle compo…
We report analytical and numerical investigations of sub-ion-scale turbulence in low-beta plasmas, focusing on the spectral properties of the fluctuations and electron heating. In the isothermal limit, the numerical results strongly support a description of the turbulence as a critically-balanced Kolmogorov-like cascade of kinetic Alfvén wave fluctuations, as amended by Boldyrev & Perez (Astrophys. J. Lett. 758, L44 (2012)) to include intermittent effects. When the constraint of isothermality is removed (i.e., with the inclusion of electron kinetic physics), the energy spectrum is found to ste…
In the present work, we test the predictions of the AWSoM model, a global extended-MHD model capable of calculating the propagation and turbulent dissipation of Alfvén waves in any magnetic topology, against high resolution spectra of the quiescent off-disk solar corona. Wave dissipation is the only heating mechanism assumed in this model. Combining 3D model results with the CHIANTI atomic database, we were able to create synthetic line-of-sight spectra which include the effects of emission line broadening due to both thermal and wave-related non-thermal motions. To the best of our knowledge t…
We study the propagation, reflection, and turbulent dissipation of Alfven waves in coronal holes and the solar wind. We start with the Heinemann-Olbert equations, which describe non-compressive magnetohydrodynamic fluctuations in an inhomogeneous medium with a background flow parallel to the background magnetic field. Following the approach of Dmitruk et al, we model the nonlinear terms in these equations using a simple phenomenology for the cascade and dissipation of wave energy, and assume that there is much more energy in waves propagating away from the Sun than waves propagating towards th…
A two-field Hamiltonian gyrofluid model for kinetic Alfvén waves retaining ion finite Larmor radius corrections and parallel magnetic field fluctuations is used to study direct turbulent cascades from the MHD to the sub-ion scales. For moderate energy imbalance and weak enough magnetic fluctuations, the spectrum of the transverse magnetic field and that of the most energetic wave display a steep transition zone near the ion scale, while the parallel transfer (and thus the parallel dissipation) remains weak. In this regime, the perpendicular flux of generalized cross helicity displays a signifi…
Using a three-dimensional compressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation, we have reproduced the fast solar wind in a direct and self-consistent manner, based on the wave/turbulence driven scenario. As a natural consequence of Alfvenic perturbations at its base, highly compressional and turbulent fluctuations are generated, leading to heating and acceleration of the solar wind. The analysis of power spectra and structure functions reveals that the turbulence is characterized by its imbalanced (in the sense of outward Alfvenic fluctuations) and anisotropic nature. The density fluctuation ori…
Understanding the mechanism(s) of the solar wind acceleration is important in astrophysics and geophysics. A promising model of the solar wind acceleration is known as the wave/turbulence-driven (WTD) model, in which Alfvén waves feed energy to the solar wind. In this study, we tested the WTD model with global measurement of wind speed from interplanetary scintillation (IPS) observations. For Carrington rotations in minimal and maximal activity phases, we selected field lines calculated by the potential-field source-surface method in high- and mid-latitudes and compared the simulated and obser…
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 …
