Related papers: Linear Stability in the Inner Heliosphere: Helios …
Instabilities described by linear theory characterize an important form of wave-particle interaction in the solar wind. We diagnose unstable behavior of solar wind plasma between 0.3 and 1 au via the Nyquist criterion, applying it to fits…
We perform a statistical assessment of solar wind stability at 1 AU against ion sources of free energy using Nyquist's instability criterion. In contrast to typically employed threshold models which consider a single free-energy source,…
Linear theory is a well developed framework for characterizing instabilities in weakly collisional plasmas, such as the solar wind. In the previous instalment of this series, we analyzed ~1.5M proton and alpha particle Velocity Distribution…
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…
The hot and diffuse nature of the Sun's extended atmosphere allows it to persist in non-equilibrium states for long enough that wave-particle instabilities can arise and modify the evolution of the expanding solar wind. Determining which…
We study the radial evolution of intermittency of density fluctuations in the fast solar wind. The study is performed analyzing the plasma density measurements provided by Helios 2 in the inner heliosphere between $0.3$ and $0.9$ AU. The…
Where and under what conditions the transfer of energy between electromagnetic fields and particles takes place in the solar wind remains an open question. We investigate the conditions that promote the growth of kinetic instabilities…
We analyzed intermittency in the solar wind, as observed on the ecliptic plane, looking at magnetic field and velocity fluctuations between 0.3 and 1 AU, for both fast and slow wind and for compressive and directional fluctuations. Our…
We analyze the micro-kinetic stability of the electron strahl in the solar wind depending on heliocentric distance. The oblique fast-magnetosonic/whistler (FM/W) instability has emerged in the literature as a key candidate mechanism for the…
Helioseismology provides a powerful tool to explore the deep interior of the Sun: for example, the adiabatic sound speed can be inferred with an accuracy of a few parts in 10,000. This has become a serious challenge to theoretical models of…
The origins and generation mechanisms of the slow solar wind are still unclear. Part of the slow solar wind is populated by "number density structures", discrete patches of increased number density that are frozen in to and move with the…
Many natural and engineering systems involve the mixing of two fluid streams, in which the effects of density and viscosity gradients play important roles in determining flow stability. We perform linear stability calculations for a jet…
Important efforts are currently made for understanding the so-called kinetic instabilities, driven by the anisotropy of different species of plasma particles present in the solar wind and terrestrial magnetosphere. These instabilities are…
The linear scaling of the mixed third-order moment of the magnetohydrodynamic fluctuations is used to estimate the energy transfer rate of the turbulent cascade in the expanding solar wind. In 1976 the Helios 2 spacecraft measured three…
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…
The solar wind (SW) and local interstellar medium (LISM) are turbulent media. Their interaction is governed by complex physical processes and creates heliospheric regions with significantly different properties in terms of particle…
A variety of nonthermal characteristics like kinetic, e.g., temperature, anisotropies and suprathermal populations (enhancing the high energy tails of the velocity distributions) are revealed by the in-situ observations in the solar wind…
At present, the heliosphere is embedded in a warm low density interstellar cloud that belongs to a cloud system flowing through the local standard of rest with a velocity near ~18 km/s. The velocity structure of the nearest interstellar…
The scaling of the turbulent spectra provides a key measurement that allows to discriminate between different theoretical predictions of turbulence. In the solar wind, this has driven a large number of studies dedicated to this issue using…
In-situ observations of the solar wind (SW) plasma from 0.29 to 1AU show that the protons and alpha particles are often non-Maxwellian, with evidence of kinetic instabilities, temperature anisotropies, differential ion streaming, and…