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1. Evidence of Electron Acceleration via Nonlinear Resonant Interactions with Whistler-mode Waves at Foreshock Transients

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acd9ab  

   Shi, Xiaofei; Artemyev, Anton; Angelopoulos, Vassilis; Liu, Terry; Zhang, Xiao-Jia (July 2023, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract Shock waves are sites of intense plasma heating and charged particle acceleration. In collisionless solar wind plasmas, such acceleration is attributed to shock drift or Fermi acceleration but also to wave–particle resonant interactions. We examine the latter for the case of electrons interacting with one of the most commonly observed wave modes in shock environments, the whistler mode. Such waves are particularly intense in dynamic, localized regions upstream of shocks, arising from the kinetic interaction of the shock with solar wind discontinuities. These regions, known as foreshock transients, are also sites of significant electron acceleration by mechanisms not fully understood. Using in situ observations of such transients in the Earth’s foreshock, we demonstrate that intense whistler-mode waves can resonate nonlinearly with >25 eV solar wind electrons and accelerate them to ∼100–500 eV. This acceleration is mostly effective for the 50–250 eV energy range, where the accelerated electron population exhibits a characteristic butterfly pitch-angle distribution consistent with theoretical predictions. Such nonlinear resonant acceleration is very fast, implying that this mechanism may be important for injecting suprathermal electrons of solar wind origin into the shock region, where they can undergo further, efficient shock-drift acceleration to even higher energies. 

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2. Whistler‐Mode Wave Generation During Interplanetary Shock Events in the Earth's Lunar Plasma Environment

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL107392  

   Prasad, Abhinav; Li, Wen; Ma, Qianli; Shen, Xiao‐Chen (May 2024, Geophysical Research Letters)

   Abstract Whistler‐mode waves are commonly observed within the lunar environment, while their variations during Interplanetary (IP) shocks are not fully understood yet. In this paper, we analyze two IP shock events observed by Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moons Interaction with the Sun (ARTEMIS) satellites while the Moon was exposed to the solar wind. In the first event, ARTEMIS detected whistler‐mode wave intensification, accompanied by sharply increased hot electron flux and anisotropy across the shock ramp. The potential reflection or backscattering of electrons by the lunar crustal magnetic field is found to be favorable for whistler‐mode wave intensification. In the second event, a magnetic field line rotation around the shock region was observed and correlated with whistler‐mode wave intensification. The wave growth rates calculated using linear theory agree well with the observed wave spectra. Our study highlights the significance of magnetic field variations and anisotropic hot electron distributions in generating whistler‐mode waves in the lunar plasma environment following IP shock arrivals. 

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3. Backward test particle simulation of nonlinear cyclotron wave-particle interactions in the radiation belts

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2024.1484399  

   Hosseini, Poorya; Harid, Vijay; Golkowski, Mark; Tu, Weichao (November 2024, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences)

   Wave-particle interaction plays a crucial role in the dynamics of the Earth’s radiation belts. Cyclotron resonance between coherent whistler mode electromagnetic waves and energetic electrons of the radiation belts is often called a coherent instability. Coherent instability leads to wave amplification/generation and particle acceleration/scattering. The effect of wave on particle’s distribution function is a key component of the instability. In general, whistler wave amplitude can grow over threshold of quasi-linear (linear) diffusion theory which analytically tracks the time-evolution of a particle distribution. Thus, a numerical approach is required to model the nonlinear wave induced perturbations on particle distribution function. A backward test particle model is used to determine the energetic electrons phase space dynamics as a result of coherent whistler wave instability. The results show the formation of a phase space features with much higher resolution than is available with forward scattering models. In the nonlinear regime the formation of electron phase space holes upstream of a monochromatic wave is observed. The results validate the nonlinear phase trapping mechanism that drives nonlinear whistler mode growth. The key differences in phase-space perturbations between the linear and nonlinear scenarios are also illustrated. For the linearized equations or for low (below threshold) wave amplitudes in the nonlinear case, there is no formation of a phase-space hole and both models show features that can be characterized as linear striations or ripples in phase-space. 

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4. Transmission of foreshock waves through Earth’s bow shock

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01837-z  

   Turc, L.; Roberts, O. W.; Verscharen, D.; Dimmock, A. P.; Kajdič, P.; Palmroth, M.; Pfau-Kempf, Y.; Johlander, A.; Dubart, M.; Kilpua, E. K.; et al (January 2023, Nature Physics)

   Abstract The Earth’s magnetosphere and its bow shock, which is formed by the interaction of the supersonic solar wind with the terrestrial magnetic field, constitute a rich natural laboratory enabling in situ investigations of universal plasma processes. Under suitable interplanetary magnetic field conditions, a foreshock with intense wave activity forms upstream of the bow shock. So-called 30 s waves, named after their typical period at Earth, are the dominant wave mode in the foreshock and play an important role in modulating the shape of the shock front and affect particle reflection at the shock. These waves are also observed inside the magnetosphere and down to the Earth’s surface, but how they are transmitted through the bow shock remains unknown. By combining state-of-the-art global numerical simulations and spacecraft observations, we demonstrate that the interaction of foreshock waves with the shock generates earthward-propagating, fast-mode waves, which reach the magnetosphere. These findings give crucial insight into the interaction of waves with collisionless shocks in general and their impact on the downstream medium. 

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5. Nonlinear Landau resonant interaction between whistler waves and electrons: Excitation of electron-acoustic waves

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0171227  

   Ma, Donglai; An, Xin; Artemyev, Anton; Bortnik, Jacob; Angelopoulos, Vassilis; Zhang, Xiao-Jia (February 2024, Physics of Plasmas)

   Electron-acoustic waves (EAWs) as well as electron-acoustic solitary structures play a crucial role in thermalization and acceleration of electron populations in Earth's magnetosphere. These waves are often observed in association with whistler-mode waves, but the detailed mechanism of EAW and whistler wave coupling is not yet revealed. We investigate the excitation mechanism of EAWs and their potential relation to whistler waves using particle-in-cell simulations. Whistler waves are first excited by electrons with a temperature anisotropy perpendicular to the background magnetic field. Electrons trapped by these whistler waves through nonlinear Landau resonance form localized field-aligned beams, which subsequently excite EAWs. By comparing the growth rate of EAWs and the phase mixing rate of trapped electron beams, we obtain the critical condition for EAW excitation, which is consistent with our simulation results across a wide region in parameter space. These results are expected to be useful in the interpretation of concurrent observations of whistler-mode waves and nonlinear solitary structures and may also have important implications for investigation of cross-scale energy transfer in the near-Earth space environment. 

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