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Space plasmas in various astrophysical setups can often be both very hot and dilute, making them highly susceptible to waves and fluctuations, which are generally self-generated and maintained by kinetic instabilities. In this sense, we…
Large amplitude whistler waves at frequencies of 0.2 to 0.4 times electron cyclotron frequency are frequently observed in the solar wind. The waves are obliquely propagating close to the resonance cone, with significant electric fields…
We present a kinetic stability analysis of the solar wind electron distribution function consisting of the Maxwellian core and the magnetic-field aligned strahl, a superthermal electron beam propagating away from the sun. We use an electron…
The electrons are an essential particle species in the solar wind. They often exhibit non-equilibrium features in their velocity distribution function. These include temperature anisotropies, tails (kurtosis), and reflectional asymmetries…
A well-known property of solar wind plasma turbulence is the observed anisotropy of the autocorrelations, or equivalently the spectra, of velocity and magnetic field fluctuations. Here we explore the related but apparently not well-studied…
The problems of heating and acceleration of solar wind particles are of significant and enduring interest in astrophysics. The interactions between waves and particles are crucial in determining the distributions of proton and alpha…
The anisotropy of turbulence in the fast solar wind, between the ion and electron gyroscales, is directly observed using a multispacecraft analysis technique. Second order structure functions are calculated at different angles to the local…
The new in situ measurements of the Solar Orbiter mission contribute to the knowledge of the suprathermal populations in the solar wind, especially of ions and protons whose characterization, although still in the early phase, seems to…
In collision-poor plasmas from space, three distinct ion-ion instabilities can be driven by the proton beams streaming along the background magnetic field: left-hand resonant, non-resonant, and right-hand resonant instabilities. These…
Solar wind is probably the best laboratory to study turbulence in astrophysical plasmas. In addition to the presence of magnetic field, the differences with neutral fluid isotropic turbulence are: weakness of collisional dissipation and…
Observations show that plasma particles in the solar wind frequently display power-law velocity distributions, which can be isotropic or anisotropic. Particularly, the velocity distribution functions of solar wind electrons are frequently…
An ion beam can destabilize Alfv\'en/ion-cyclotron waves and magnetosonic/whistler waves if the beam speed is sufficiently large. Numerical solutions of the hot-plasma dispersion relation have previously shown that the minimum beam speed…
Interplanetary (IP) shocks efficiently modify the proton temperature anisotropy of the solar wind. Analyzing ~800 IP shocks observed by the Wind spacecraft from 1997-2024, we present a statistical study of upstream and downstream proton…
In fast wind or when the local Coulomb collision frequency is low, observations show that solar wind minor ions and ion sub-populations flow with different bulk velocities. Measurements indicate that the drift speed of both alpha particles…
Plasma kinetic waves and alpha-proton differential flow are two important subjects on the topic of evolution of the solar wind. Based on the Wind data during 2005-2015, this paper reports that the occurrence of electromagnetic cyclotron…
The anisotropy of solar wind turbulence is a critical issue in understanding the physics of energy transfer between scales and energy conversion between fields and particles in the heliosphere. Using the measurement of \emph{Parker Solar…
Parametric decay instability (PDI) of Alfv\'en wave is thought to play an important role in the dissipation of the large-amplitude Alfv\'en waves and in the heating of magnetized plasmas. Temperature anisotropy is frequently observed by…
Observations in the solar wind suggest that the compressive component of inertial-range solar-wind turbulence is dominated by slow modes. The low collisionality of the solar wind allows for non-thermal features to survive, which suggests…
Resonant interactions between ions and Alfv\'en/ion-cyclotron (A/IC) waves may play an important role in the heating and acceleration of the fast solar wind. Although such interactions have been studied extensively for "parallel" waves,…
The recent simulations showed that the whistler heat flux instability, which presumably produces the most of quasi-parallel coherent whistler waves in the solar wind, is not efficient in regulating the electron heat conduction. In addition,…