Whistler turbulence heating of electrons and ions: Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations
- Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO (United States)
- University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
The decay of whistler turbulence in a collisionless, homogeneous, magnetized plasma is studied using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The simulations are initialized with a narrowband, relatively isotropic distribution of long wavelength whistler modes. A first ensemble of simulations at electron beta β{sub e} = 0.25 and ion-to-electron mass ratio m{sub i}/m{sub e} = 400 is carried out on a domain cube of dimension Lω{sub pi}/c = 5.12 where ω{sub pi} is the ion plasma frequency. The simulations begin with a range of dimensionless fluctuating field energy densities, ϵ{sub o}, and follow the fluctuations as they cascade to broadband, anisotropic turbulence which dissipates at shorter wavelengths, heating both electrons and ions. The electron heating is stronger and preferentially parallel/antiparallel to the background magnetic field B{sub o}; the ion energy gain is weaker and is preferentially in directions perpendicular to B{sub o}. The important new results here are that, over 0.01 < ϵ{sub o} < 0.25, the maximum rate of electron heating scales approximately as ϵ{sub o}, and the maximum rate of ion heating scales approximately as ϵ{sub o}{sup 1.5}. A second ensemble of simulations at ϵ{sub o} = 0.10 and β{sub e} = 0.25 shows that, over 25 < m{sub i}/m{sub e} < 1836, the ratio of the maximum ion heating rate to the maximum electron heating rate scales approximately as m{sub e}/m{sub i}.
- OSTI ID:
- 22882308
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 816, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Since 2009, the country of publication for this journal is the UK.; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
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