Related papers: Fire Hose instability driven by alpha particle tem…
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,…
Ion-driven plasma instability thresholds, derived from linear theory, constrain the distribution of solar observations in parameter space, defining boundaries of stable plasma parameters. Excursions beyond these thresholds result in the…
Despite extensive observational and theoretical efforts, the physical processes responsible for shaping the diversity of accelerated electron spectra observed in solar flares remain poorly understood. We use 2D particle-in-cell (PIC)…
The fast solar wind is a collisionless plasma permeated by plasma waves on many different scales. A plasma wave represents the natural interplay between the periodic changes of the electromagnetic field and the associated coherent motions…
Differential flows among different ion species are often observed in the solar wind, and such ion differential flows can provide the free energy to drive Alfv\'en/ion-cyclotron and fast-magnetosonic/whistler instabilities. Previous works…
Event horizon-scale observations of low-luminosity black hole accretion flows favor magnetically arrested disks, characterized by dynamically important magnetic fields ($\beta\lesssim1$, where $\beta$ is the ratio of plasma thermal pressure…
The linear stability of waves driven by ion beams produced during solar flare energy release are explored to assess their role in driving abundance enhancements in minority species such as $^3$He and in controlling, through pitch-angle…
Correlations are studied between the power density of transverse waves having frequencies between $0.01$ and $1$ normalized to the proton gyrofrequency in the plasma frame and the ratio of the perpendicular and parallel temperature of the…
The nonlinear evolution of the Kelvin Helmholtz instability in a magnetized plasma with a perpendicular flow close to, or in, the supermagnetosonic regime can produce a significant parallel-to-perpendicular pressure anisotropy. This…
The stability of weakly collisional plasmas is well represented by linear theory, and the generated waves play an essential role in the thermodynamics of these systems. The velocity distribution functions (VDF) characterizing kinetic…
Proton temperature anisotropies between the directions parallel and perpendicular to the mean magnetic field are usually observed in the solar wind plasma. Here, we employ a high-resolution hybrid particle-in-cell simulation in order to…
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…
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…
Numerous prior studies have shown that as proton beta increases, a narrower range of proton temperature anisotropy values is observed. This effect has often been ascribed to the actions of kinetic microinstabilities because the distribution…
The relationship between a decaying strong turbulence and the mirror instability in a slowly expanding plasma is investigated using two-dimensional hybrid expanding box simulations. We impose an initial ambient magnetic field perpendicular…
The proton temperature anisotropy in the solar wind is known to be constrained by the theoretical thresholds for pressure anisotropy-driven instabilities. Here we use approximately 1 million independent measurements of gyroscale magnetic…
In the parts of the solar corona and solar wind that experience the fewest Coulomb collisions, the component proton, electron, and heavy ion populations are not in thermal equilibrium with one another. Observed differences in temperatures,…
Recent studies have revealed new unstable regimes of the counter-beaming electrons specific to hot and dilute plasmas from astrophysical scenarios. The (counter-)beaming electron firehose instability (BEFI) is induced for highly oblique…
A magnetic field was recently shown to enhance field-parallel heat conduction in a strongly correlated plasma whereas cross-field conduction is reduced. Here we show that in such plasmas, the magnetic field has the additional effect of…
Weakly collisional space plasmas are rarely in local thermal equilibrium and often exhibit non-Maxwellian electron and ion velocity distributions that lead to the growth of microinstabilities, that is, enhanced electric and magnetic fields…