ELECTROMAGNETIC PROTON/PROTON INSTABILITY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR ION HEATING IN THE EXTENDED FAST SOLAR WIND

Journal Article · Sun Feb 10 04:00:00 EST 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/764/1/71· OSTI ID:22167807

Gao, Xinliang; Lu, Quanming; Shan, Lican; Wang, Shui ^[1]; Li, Xing ^[2]

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1. CAS Key Laboratory of Geospace Sciences, Department of Geophysics and Planetary Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026 (China)
2. Institute of Mathematics and Physics, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ (United Kingdom)

Two-dimensional hybrid simulations are performed in this paper to investigate the proton/proton instability in low beta plasma. The obliquely propagating Alfven waves are found to be unstable to the proton/proton instability. At first, the Alfven waves have a nearly linear polarization, and both the ambient protons and minor ions O{sup 6+} can be resonantly heated. The heating is primarily in the direction perpendicular to the background magnetic field. With the evolution of the instability, the obliquely propagating Alfven waves gradually become left-hand polarized, and then cannot resonantly heat the ambient protons or minor ions O{sup 6+}. The effects of the plasma beta and temperature anisotropy of the ambient protons on the evolution of the instability are also studied in this paper. Finally, the implications of our simulation results for ion heating in the extended fast solar wind are discussed.

• OSTI ID: 22167807
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 764; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
HEAT
HEATING
IONS
LOW-BETA PLASMA
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PLASMA INSTABILITY
POLARIZATION
PROTONS
SIMULATION
SOLAR WIND
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS