English

Electron Temperature Anisotropy and Electron Beam Constraints From Electron Kinetic Instabilities in the Solar Wind

Space Physics 2020-10-21 v1

Abstract

Electron temperature anisotropies and electron beams are nonthermal features of the observed nonequilibrium electron velocity distributions in the solar wind. In collision-poor plasmas these nonequilibrium distributions are expected to be regulated by kinetic instabilities through wave-particle interactions. This study considers electron instabilities driven by the interplay of core electron temperature anisotropies and the electron beam, and firstly gives a comprehensive analysis of instabilities in arbitrary directions to the background magnetic field. It clarifies the dominant parameter regime (e.g., parallel core electron plasma beta βec\beta_{\mathrm{ec\parallel}}, core electron temperature anisotropy AecTec/TecA_{\mathrm{ec}}\equiv T_{\mathrm{ec\perp}}/T_{\mathrm{ec\parallel}}, and electron beam velocity VebV_{\mathrm{eb}}) for each kind of electron instability (e.g., the electron beam-driven electron acoustic/magnetoacoustic instability, the electron beam-driven whistler instability, the electromagnetic electron cyclotron instability, the electron mirror instability, the electron firehose instability, and the ordinary-mode instability). It finds that the electron beam can destabilize electron acoustic/magnetoacoustic waves in the low-βec\beta_{\mathrm{ec\parallel}} regime, and whistler waves in the medium- and large-βec\beta_{\mathrm{ec\parallel}} regime. It also finds that a new oblique fast-magnetosonic/whistler instability is driven by the electron beam with Veb7VAV_{\mathrm{eb}}\gtrsim7V_{\mathrm{A}} in a regime where βec0.12\beta_{\mathrm{ec\parallel}}\sim0.1-2 and Aec<1A_{\mathrm{ec}}<1. Moreover, this study presents electromagnetic responses of each kind of electron instability. These results provide a comprehensive overview for electron instability constraints on core electron temperature anisotropies and electron beams in the solar wind.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2010.01066,
  title  = {Electron Temperature Anisotropy and Electron Beam Constraints From Electron Kinetic Instabilities in the Solar Wind},
  author = {Heyu Sun and Jinsong Zhao and Wen Liu and Huasheng Xie and Dejin Wu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.01066},
  year   = {2020}
}