The effect of broad-band Alfven-cyclotron waves spectra on the preferential heating and differential acceleration of He{sup ++} ions in the solar wind

Journal Article · Thu Jun 13 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4810983· OSTI ID:22118615

Maneva, Y. G. ^[1]; Ofman, L. ^[2]; Vinas, A. F. ^[3]

---

1. Department of Physics, Catholic University of America, Washington DC, 20064 (United States) and Heliophysics Science Devision, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064 (United States) and Heliophysics Science Devision, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
3. Heliophysics Science Devision, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)

In anticipation of results from inner heliospheric missions such as the Solar Orbiter and the Solar Probe we present the results from 1.5D hybrid simulations to study the role of magnetic fluctuations for the heating and differential acceleration of He{sup ++} ions in the solar wind. We consider the effects of nonlinear Alfven-cyclotron waves at different frequency regimes. Monochromatic nonlinear Alfven-alpha-cyclotron waves are known to preferentially heat and accelerate He{sup ++} ions in collisionless low beta plasma. In this study we demonstrate that these effects are preserved when higherfrequency monochromatic and broad-band spectra of Alfven-proton-cyclotron waves are considered. Comparison between several nonlinear monochromatic waves shows that the ion temperatures, anisotropies and relative drift are quantitatively affected by the shift in frequency. Including a broad-band wave-spectrum results in a significant reduction of both the parallel and the perpendicular temperature components for the He{sup ++} ions, whereas the proton heating is barely influenced, with the parallel proton temperature only slightly enhanced. The differential streaming is strongly affected by the available wave power in the resonant daughter ion-acoustic waves. Therefore for the same initial wave energy, the relative drift is significantly reduced in the case of initial wave-spectra in comparison to the simulations with monochromatic waves.

• OSTI ID: 22118615
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 1539; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ACCELERATION
ALFVEN WAVES
ANISOTROPY
ASTROPHYSICS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ENERGY SPECTRA
FLUCTUATIONS
HEATING
HELIUM IONS
ION ACOUSTIC WAVES
ION TEMPERATURE
LOW-BETA PLASMA
MONOCHROMATIC RADIATION
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA SIMULATION
PROTON TEMPERATURE
SOLAR PROTONS
SOLAR WIND
SOUND WAVES