Related papers: On the temperature of the solar wind
We propose a transport theory for the kinetic evolution of solar-wind electrons in the heliosphere. We derive a gyro-averaged kinetic transport equation that accounts for the spherical expansion of the solar wind and the geometry of the…
Characterizing the plasma state in the near-Sun environment is essential to constrain the mechanisms that heat and accelerate the solar wind. In this study, we use Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observations from Encounters 1 through 24 to…
Spacecraft observations have shown that the proton temperature in the solar wind falls off with radial distance more slowly than expected for an adiabatic prediction. Usually, previous studies have been focused on the evolution of the…
We perform fully-kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of an hot plasma that expands radially in a cylindrical geometry. The aim of the paper is to study the consequent development of the electron temperature anisotropy in an expanding…
Chapman's (1957) conductive model of the solar corona is characterized by a temperature varying as r**(-2/7) with heliocentric distance r. The density distribution in this non-isothermal hydrostatic model has a minimum value at 123 RS, and…
The heating of the solar wind is a key to understand its dynamics and acceleration process. The observed radial decrease of proton temperature in the solar wind is slow compared to the adiabatic prediction and it is thought to be caused by…
We analyze measured proton and electron temperatures in the high-speed solar wind in order to calculate the separate rates of heat deposition for protons and electrons. When comparing with other regions of the heliosphere, the fast solar…
Nonthermal features are ubiquitously observed in electron velocity distribution functions in the solar wind, yet their origin in the collisionless, turbulent, expanding solar-wind plasma remains unclear. We investigate how solar-wind…
Solar wind heating rates have often been calculated by fitting plasma and magnetic field data with a set of model functions. In this letter, we show that the rates obtained by such an approach strongly depend on the rather arbitrary choice…
We study the evolution of turbulence in the solar wind by solving numerically the full 3D magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) equations embedded in a radial mean wind. The corresponding equations (expanding box model or EBM) have been considered…
A central problem of space plasma physics is how protons and electrons are heated in a turbulent, magnetized plasma. The differential heating of charged species due to dissipation of turbulent fluctuations plays a key role in solar wind…
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…
We investigate the solar wind energy flux in the inner heliosphere using 12-day observations around each perihelion of Encounter One (E01), Two (E02), Four (E04), and Five (E05) of Parker Solar Probe (PSP), respectively, with a minimum…
Direct evidence of an inertial-range turbulent energy cascade has been provided by spacecraft observations in heliospheric plasmas. In the solar wind, the average value of the derived heating rate near 1 au is $\sim 10^{3}\,…
This Letter reports the first observational estimate of the heating rate in the slowly expanding solar corona. The analysis exploits the simultaneous remote and local observations of the same coronal plasma volume with the Solar…
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…
We perform a high-resolution two-dimensional fully-kinetic numerical simulation of a turbulent plasma system with observation-driven conditions, in order to investigate the interplay between turbulence, magnetic reconnection, and particle…
Turbulence in space plasmas usually exhibits two regimes separated by a spectral break that divides the so called inertial and kinetic ranges. Large scale magnetic fluctuations are dominated by non-linear MHD wave-wave interactions…
The proton temperature anisotropy in the solar wind exhibits apparent bounds which are compatible with the theoretical constraints imposed by temperature-anisotropy driven kinetic instabilities. Recent statistical analyses based on…
We perform 2.5D hybrid simulations to investigate the origin and evolution of relative drift speeds between protons and $\alpha$ particles in the collisionless turbulent low-$\beta$ solar wind plasma. We study the generation of differential…