English

Wave Particle Interaction in the Upstream of ICME Shocks

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2025-04-30 v1 Plasma Physics

Abstract

Shocks associated with Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections are known to energize charged particles and give rise to Solar Energetic Particles. Many of these energetic particles move ahead of the shock to create a foreshock region. The foreshock region primarily consists of solar wind plasma, exhibiting turbulent velocity and magnetic fields. Such turbulent behavior results from inherent solar wind turbulence modified by energetic particles. We analyze magnetic field data from six such ICME shocks observed by the Wind spacecraft. The analysis of the shock upstream shows that the magnetic power spectral density (PSD) maintains a power-law slope of 5/3-5/3. We also identify clear intermittent peaks in the PSD. After characterizing these peaks, we investigate various possibilities for their generation. Our analysis indicates that these peaks in the PSD are due to the resonant interaction of Alfv\'en waves with the bulk solar wind protons and protons with energy up to 1010~keV. However, evidence of Alfv\'en wave interaction with highly energetic protons is not evident in our analysis, and we anticipate that such evidence is obscured by the prevailing solar wind turbulence in the shock upstream.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.20856,
  title  = {Wave Particle Interaction in the Upstream of ICME Shocks},
  author = {Shanwlee Sow Mondal and Aveek Sarkar and Sofiane Bourouaine},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.20856},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

15 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal