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1. Proton Heating by a Proton–Alpha Drift Instability with an Anisotropic Alpha-particle Temperature in a Turbulent Solar-wind Plasma

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac6507  

   Markovskii, S. A. ; Vasquez, Bernard J. ( May 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   The proton–alpha drift instability is a possible mechanism of the alpha-particle deceleration and the resulting proton heating in the solar wind. We present hybrid numerical simulations of this instability with particle-in-cell ions and a quasi-neutralizing electron fluid for typical conditions at 1 au. For the parameters used in this paper, we find that fast magnetosonic unstable modes propagate only in the direction opposite to the alpha-particle drift and do not produce the perpendicular proton heating necessary to accelerate the solar wind. Alfvén modes propagate in both directions and heat the protons perpendicularly to the mean magnetic field. Despite being driven by the alpha temperature anisotropy, the Alfvén instability also extracts the energy from the bulk motion of the alpha particles. In the solar wind, the instabilities operate in a turbulent ambient medium. We show that the turbulence suppresses the Alfvén instability but the perpendicular proton heating persists. Unlike a static nonuniform background, the turbulence does not invert the sense of the proton heating associated with the fast magnetosonic instability and it remains preferentially parallel.

    

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2. Observational Analysis and Numerical Modeling of the Solar Wind Fluctuation Spectra during Intervals of Plasma Instability

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac9f42  

   Markovskii, S. A. ; Vasquez, Bernard J. ( December 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We perform a statistical analysis of observed magnetic spectra in the solar wind at 1 au with localized power elevations above the level of the ambient turbulent fluctuations. We show that the elevations are seen only when the intensity of the ambient fluctuations is sufficiently low. Assuming that the spectral elevations are caused by thermal-ion instabilities, this suggests that on average the effect of the solar wind background is strong enough to suppress the instability or obscure it or both. We then carry out nonlinear numerical simulations with particle ions and an electron fluid to model a thermal-ion instability coexisting with an ambient turbulence. The parameters of the simulation are taken from a known solar wind interval where an instability was assumed to exist based on the linear theory and a bi-Maxwellian fit of the observed distribution with core and secondary-beam protons. The numerical model closely matches the position of the observed spectral elevation in the wavenumber space. This confirms that the thermal-ion instability is responsible for the elevation. At the same time, the magnitude of the elevation turns out to be smaller than in the real solar wind. When higher intensity of the turbulence is used in the simulation, which is typical of solar wind in general, the power elevation is no longer seen. This is in agreement with the reduced observability of the elevations at higher intensities. However, the simulations show that the turbulence does not simply obscure the instability but also lowers its saturation level. 

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3. Turbulence in the Sub-Alfvénic Solar Wind

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac51da  

   Zank, G. P. ; Zhao, L. -L. ; Adhikari, L. ; Telloni, D. ; Kasper, J. C. ; Stevens, M. ; Rahmati, A. ; Bale, S. D. ( February 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) entered a region of sub-Alfvénic solar wind during encounter 8, and we present the first detailed analysis of low-frequency turbulence properties in this novel region. The magnetic field and flow velocity vectors were highly aligned during this interval. By constructing spectrograms of the normalized magnetic helicity, cross-helicity, and residual energy, we find that PSP observed primarily Alfvénic fluctuations, a consequence of the highly field-aligned flow that renders quasi-2D fluctuations unobservable to PSP. We extend Taylor’s hypothesis to sub- and super-Alfvénic flows. Spectra for the fluctuating forward and backward Elsässer variables (z^±, respectively) are presented, showing thatz⁺modes dominatez⁻by an order of magnitude or more, and thez⁺spectrum is a power law in frequency (parallel wavenumber)f^−3/2($k_{\parallel }^{-3/2}$) compared to the convexz⁻spectrum withf^−3/2($k_{\parallel }^{-3/2}$) at low frequencies, flattening around a transition frequency (at which the nonlinear and Alfvén timescales are balanced) tof^−1.25at higher frequencies. The observed spectra are well fitted using a spectral theory for nearly incompressible magnetohydrodynamics assuming a wavenumber anisotropy$k_{\perp }\sim k_{\parallel }^{3/4}$, that thez⁺fluctuations experience primarily nonlinear interactions, and that the minorityz⁻fluctuations experience both nonlinear and Alfvénic interactions withz⁺fluctuations. The density spectrum is a power law that resembles neither thez^±spectra nor the compressible magnetic field spectrum, suggesting that these are advected entropic rather than magnetosonic modes and not due to the parametric decay instability. Spectra in the neighboring modestly super-Alfvénic intervals are similar.

    

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4. Secondary Whistler and Ion-cyclotron Instabilities Driven by Mirror Modes in Galaxy Clusters

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad2455  

   Ley, Francisco ; Zweibel, Ellen G. ; Miller, Drake ; Riquelme, Mario ( April 2024 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   Electron cyclotron waves (whistlers) are commonly observed in plasmas near Earth and the solar wind. In the presence of nonlinear mirror modes, bursts of whistlers, usually called lion roars, have been observed within low magnetic field regions associated with these modes. In the intracluster medium (ICM) of galaxy clusters, the excitation of the mirror instability is expected, but it is not yet clear whether electron and ion cyclotron (IC) waves can also be present under conditions where gas pressure dominates over magnetic pressure (highβ). In this work, we perform fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of a plasma subject to a continuous amplification of the mean magnetic fieldB(t) to study the nonlinear stages of the mirror instability and the ensuing excitation of whistler and IC waves under ICM conditions. Once mirror modes reach nonlinear amplitudes, both whistler and IC waves start to emerge simultaneously, with subdominant amplitudes, propagating in low-Bregions, quasi-parallel toB(t). We show that the underlying source of excitation is the pressure anisotropy of electrons and ions trapped in mirror modes with loss-cone-type distributions. We also observe that IC waves play an essential role in regulating the ion pressure anisotropy at nonlinear stages. We argue that whistler and IC waves are a concomitant feature at late stages of the mirror instability even at highβ, and therefore, expected to be present in astrophysical environments like the ICM. We discuss the implications of our results for collisionless heating and dissipation of turbulence in the ICM.

    

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5. Adaptive Critical Balance and Firehose Instability in an Expanding, Turbulent, Collisionless Plasma

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac37c2  

   Bott, A. F. A. ; Arzamasskiy, L. ; Kunz, M. W. ; Quataert, E. ; Squire, J. ( November 2021 , The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Using a hybrid-kinetic particle-in-cell simulation, we study the evolution of an expanding, collisionless, magnetized plasma in which strong Alfvénic turbulence is persistently driven. Temperature anisotropy generated adiabatically by the plasma expansion (and consequent decrease in the mean magnetic-field strength) gradually reduces the effective elasticity of the field lines, causing reductions in the linear frequency and residual energy of the Alfvénic fluctuations. In response, these fluctuations modify their interactions and spatial anisotropy to maintain a scale-by-scale “critical balance” between their characteristic linear and nonlinear frequencies. Eventually the plasma becomes unstable to kinetic firehose instabilities, which excite rapidly growing magnetic fluctuations at ion-Larmor scales. The consequent pitch-angle scattering of particles maintains the temperature anisotropy near marginal stability, even as the turbulent plasma continues to expand. The resulting evolution of parallel and perpendicular temperatures does not satisfy double-adiabatic conservation laws, but is described accurately by a simple model that includes anomalous scattering. Our results have implications for understanding the complex interplay between macro- and microscale physics in various hot, dilute, astrophysical plasmas, and offer predictions concerning power spectra, residual energy, ion-Larmor-scale spectral breaks, and non-Maxwellian features in ion distribution functions that may be tested by measurements taken in high-beta regions of the solar wind.

    

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