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Ion diffusion and acceleration in plasma turbulence

Part of: Focus on Space Plasmas Focus on Plasma Astrophysics Professor Francesco Pegoraro

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2018

F. Pecora Open the ORCID record for F. Pecora [Opens in a new window] ,
S. Servidio ,
A. Greco ,
W. H. Matthaeus ,
D. Burgess ,
C. T. Haynes ,
V. Carbone  and
P. Veltri
F. Pecora*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria, I-87036 Cosenza, Italy
S. Servidio
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria, I-87036 Cosenza, Italy
A. Greco
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria, I-87036 Cosenza, Italy
W. H. Matthaeus
Affiliation:
Bartol Research Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
D. Burgess
Affiliation:
School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University of London, 327 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK
C. T. Haynes
Affiliation:
School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University of London, 327 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK
V. Carbone
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria, I-87036 Cosenza, Italy
P. Veltri
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria, I-87036 Cosenza, Italy
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

Particle transport, acceleration and energization are phenomena of major importance for both space and laboratory plasmas. Despite years of study, an accurate theoretical description of these effects is still lacking. Validating models with self-consistent, kinetic simulations represents today a new challenge for the description of weakly collisional, turbulent plasmas. We perform simulations of steady state turbulence in the 2.5-dimensional approximation (three-dimensional fields that depend only on two-dimensional spatial directions). The chosen plasma parameters allow to span different systems, going from the solar corona to the solar wind, from the Earth’s magnetosheath to confinement devices. To describe the ion diffusion we adapted the nonlinear guiding centre (NLGC) theory to the two-dimensional case. Finally, we investigated the local influence of coherent structures on particle energization and acceleration: current sheets play an important role if the ions’ Larmor radii are of the order of the current sheet’s size. This resonance-like process leads to the violation of the magnetic moment conservation, eventually enhancing the velocity-space diffusion.

Keywords

astrophysical plasmasplasma dynamicsplasma nonlinear phenomena
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 84 , Issue 6 , December 2018 , 725840601
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

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