Related papers: Preferential Heating and Acceleration of Heavy Ion…
Enhancement of minor ions such as $^3$He and heavy ions in flare-associated solar energetic particle (SEP) events remains one of the major puzzles in heliophysics. In this work, we use 3D hybrid simulations (kinetic protons and fluid…
We present three-dimensional, hybrid-kinetic numerical simulations of driven Alfv\'{e}n-wave turbulence of relevance to the collisionless near-Earth solar wind. Special attention is paid to the spectral transition that occurs near the…
We perform 2.5D hybrid simulations with massless fluid electrons and kinetic particle-in-cell ions to study the temporal evolution of ion temperatures, temperature anisotropies and velocity distribution functions in relation to the…
In collisionless astrophysical plasmas, turbulence mediates the partitioning of free energy among cascade channels and its dissipation into ion and electron heat. The resulting ion heating is often anisotropic, with ions observed to be…
Remote sensing observations of coronal holes show that heavy ions are hotter than protons and their temperature is anisotropic. In-situ observations of fast solar wind streams provide direct evidence for turbulent Alfv\'en wave spectrum,…
Magnetic energy around astrophysical compact objects can strongly dominate over plasma rest mass. Emission observed from these systems may be fed by dissipation of Alfv\'en wave turbulence, which cascades to small damping scales, energizing…
The relationship between a decaying strong turbulence and kinetic instabilities in a slowly expanding plasma is investigated using two-dimensional (2-D) hybrid expanding box simulations. We impose an initial ambient magnetic field…
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,…
A generation mechanism of super Alfv\'{e}nic (SPA) waves in multi-ion species plasma is proposed and the associated heavy ion acceleration process is discussed. The SPA waves are thought to play important roles in particle acceleration…
Turbulence is often invoked to explain the origin of nonthermal particles in space and astrophysical plasmas. By means of 3D fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we demonstrate that turbulence in low-$\beta$ plasmas ($\beta$ is the…
Plasma ions heating (especially minor heavy ions preferential heating) in fast solar wind and solar corona is an open question in space physics. However, Alfv\'en waves have been always considered as a candidate of energy source for corona…
In the solar atmosphere, the chromospheric and coronal plasmas are much hotter than the visible photosphere. The heating of the solar atmosphere, including the partially ionized chromosphere and corona, remains largely unknown. In this…
It is shown that two circularly polarised Alfv\'en waves that propagate along the ambient magnetic field in an uniform plasma trigger non oscillating electromagnetic field components when they cross each other. The non-oscilliating field…
The solar wind plasma is a fully ionized and turbulent gas ejected by the outer layers of the solar corona at very high speed, mainly composed by protons and electrons, with a small percentage of helium nuclei and a significantly lower…
Observational evidence in space and astrophysical plasmas with long collisional mean free path suggests that more massive charged particles may be preferentially heated. One possible mechanism for this is the turbulent cascade of energy…
The process of particle acceleration by left-hand, circularly polarised inertial Alfven waves (IAW) in a transversely inhomogeneous plasma is studied using 3D particle-in-cell simulation. A cylindrical tube with, transverse to the…
Minor ions in the solar corona are heated to extreme temperatures, far in excess of those of the electrons and protons that comprise the bulk of the plasma. These highly non-thermal distributions make minor ions sensitive probes of the…
Two scenarios of possible ion heating due to finite amplitude parallel propagating Alfv\'en waves in the solar atmosphere are investigated using a 1D test particle approach. 1. An finite amplitude Alfv\'en wave is instantly introduced into…
Solar wind ions are observed to be heated in the directions perpendicular to the large-scale magnetic field, with preferential heating given to heavy ions. In the solar corona, this heating may be responsible for the generation of the wind…
We analyze plasma heating in weakly collisional kinetic Alfv\'en wave (KAW) turbulence using high resolution gyrokinetic simulations spanning the range of scales between the ion and the electron gyroradii. Real space structures that have a…