A theory of bimodal acceleration of pick up ions by compression solar wind turbulence under pressure balance
Abstract
Recently, it was demonstrated that stochastic acceleration of particles going through a series of compressive plasma waves can be efficient and fast. It could be too fast so that the pressure built up by the accelerated particles may in turn modify the amplitude of waves to prevent the particles from having an exploding pressure. We call this condition pressure balance. In this paper, we take into account the fact that active acceleration of particles only occupies a limited volume of space due to a possible intermittent nature of plasma waves or turbulence. We also develop a bimodal acceleration theory that treats the populations of particles in the active and inactive acceleration regions separately and allows the two populations to exchange particles efficiently. We show that the system automatically produces a solution of v -5 steady state distribution for the accelerated particles, under the requirement of the pressure balance condition. It is found that the v -5 distribution is more robust and easier to achieve with a small volume of intense particle acceleration. These properties explain why the v -5 distribution is commonly observed in space. We apply our model to pickup ion propagation and acceleration throughout the entire heliosphere. Thesemore »
- Authors:
-
- Florida Inst. of Technology, Melbourne, FL (United States). Dept. of Physics and Space Sciences
- Ruhr Univ. Bochum (Germany). Inst. for Theoretical Physics
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Florida Inst. of Technology, Melbourne, FL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1325991
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0008334
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Astrophysical Journal
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 756; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X
- Publisher:
- Institute of Physics (IOP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; acceleration of particles; ISM: atoms; solar wind; waves
Citation Formats
Zhang, Ming, and Schlickeiser, Reinhard. A theory of bimodal acceleration of pick up ions by compression solar wind turbulence under pressure balance. United States: N. p., 2012.
Web. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/756/2/129.
Zhang, Ming, & Schlickeiser, Reinhard. A theory of bimodal acceleration of pick up ions by compression solar wind turbulence under pressure balance. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/756/2/129
Zhang, Ming, and Schlickeiser, Reinhard. Wed .
"A theory of bimodal acceleration of pick up ions by compression solar wind turbulence under pressure balance". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/756/2/129. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1325991.
@article{osti_1325991,
title = {A theory of bimodal acceleration of pick up ions by compression solar wind turbulence under pressure balance},
author = {Zhang, Ming and Schlickeiser, Reinhard},
abstractNote = {Recently, it was demonstrated that stochastic acceleration of particles going through a series of compressive plasma waves can be efficient and fast. It could be too fast so that the pressure built up by the accelerated particles may in turn modify the amplitude of waves to prevent the particles from having an exploding pressure. We call this condition pressure balance. In this paper, we take into account the fact that active acceleration of particles only occupies a limited volume of space due to a possible intermittent nature of plasma waves or turbulence. We also develop a bimodal acceleration theory that treats the populations of particles in the active and inactive acceleration regions separately and allows the two populations to exchange particles efficiently. We show that the system automatically produces a solution of v -5 steady state distribution for the accelerated particles, under the requirement of the pressure balance condition. It is found that the v -5 distribution is more robust and easier to achieve with a small volume of intense particle acceleration. These properties explain why the v -5 distribution is commonly observed in space. We apply our model to pickup ion propagation and acceleration throughout the entire heliosphere. These results can reproduce various observations in some great detail. We also found that this mechanism could be responsible for producing anomalous cosmic rays deep in the heliosheath.},
doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/756/2/129},
journal = {Astrophysical Journal},
number = 2,
volume = 756,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Aug 22 00:00:00 EDT 2012},
month = {Wed Aug 22 00:00:00 EDT 2012}
}
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journalWeb of Science
Works referencing / citing this record:
Stochastic Acceleration of Suprathermal Particles Under Pressure Balance Conditions
journal, January 2013
- Antecki, T.; Schlickeiser, R.; Zhang, M.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 764, Issue 1
On the equilibrium between proton distribution and compressible kinetic Alfvénic fluctuations
journal, October 2018
- Yoon, P. H.; Schlickeiser, R.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 482, Issue 4