Post on 16-Dec-2015
Alfvénic turbulence at ion kinetic scales
Yuriy Voitenko
Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence, BIRA-IASB, Brussels, Belgium
Recent results obtained in collaboration with J. De Keyser, V. Pierrard, J. S. Zhao, D. J. Wu
STORM annual meeting (25-26 November 2013, Graz, Austria)
1. MHD Alfvénic turbulence evolves anisotropically toward large wavenumbers (perpendicular to the mean magnetic field) [Goldreich and Sridhar,1996]
2. Alfvén waves at ion (proton) kinetic scales (KAWs with finite differ drastically from MHD Alfvén waves [Hasegawa and Chen, 1974]
3. Alfvén turbulence at ion kinetic scales is much less known [see however Voitenko, 1998; Voitenko and De Keyser, 2011]
OUTLINE
KAW
k
||
k i -1
i-1
R
-1
_
| |
m i c r o ( k i n e t i c )
C h e r e n k o vM A C R O ( M H D )
I o n – c y c l o t r o n
N o
n –
a d
I a
b a
t I c
ICW
KINETIC ALFVEN WAVES - KAWs
Kinetic Alfvén wave (KAW) - extension of Alfvén mode in the range of high perpendicular wavenumbers.
Padé approximation for the KAW dispersion:
p - proton gyroradius.
=1
-5/3
-7/3
MHD RANGE
KAW RANGE
THEORY (Howes; Schekochihin et al., 2008-2013) P
ower
Spe
ctra
l Den
sity
SOLAR WIND TURBULENCE
Sahraoui et al. (2010): high-resolution magnetic spectrum
MHD RANGE KAW RANGE?
exhibits 4 different slopes (!)
( f ~ k_perp )
Counter-propagating KAWs interact (Voitenko, 1998):
MHD VS KINETIC ALFVÉN TURBULENCE
AT MHD SCALES (MHD AWs):
Only counter-propagating MHD AWs interact (Goldreich and Sridhar, 1995)
AT KINETIC SCALES (KAWs):
Co-propagating KAWs interact (Voitenko, 1998):
ALFVÉNIC TURBULENCE SPECTRA (THEORY)
weak turbulence;
strong turbulence;
Strongly dispersive range (SDR kinetic):
weak turbulence;
strong turbulence;
Non-dispersive range (MHD):
weak turbulence;
strong turbulence;
Weakly dispersive range (WDR kinetic):
STEEPEST!
DOUBLE-KINK SPECTRAL PATTERN (Voitenko and De Keyser, 2011)
Three possible interpretations: (1) dissipative (left), or (2) dispersive (right), or (3) =(1)+(3)
ALFVÉNIC TURBULENCE IN SOLAR WIND
KAW range = WDR KAW range + SDR KAW range
MHD RANGE SDR KINETIC
WDRkinetic
( f ~ k_perp )
PUZZLE 1:
KAWs VERSUS OTHER WAVE MODES AT ION SCALES
RECENT OBSERVATIONS OF WAVE MODES
Wave-vector inclination (top) and frequency (bottom) versus wavenumber [Narita et al., 2011].
The dispersion analysis suggests whistlers/magnetosonic waves rather than kinetic Alfven waves.
FW/whistlers are not supported by these observations:
RECENT OBSERVATIONS OF WAVE MODES
Exploiting B II Bo component to discriminate KAWs vs. FW/whistlers:
Salem et al. (2012) : IDENTIFICATION OF KINETIC ALFVEN TURBULENCE IN THE SOLAR WIND
He et al. (2012) : DO KINETIC ALFVEN / ION-CYCLOTRON OR FAST-MODE/WHISTLER WAVES DOMINATE?
He et al. (2012)
Salem et al. (2012)
PUZZLE 2:
PARALLEL AGAINST PERPENDICULAR ION HEATING
PROTON VELOCITY DISTRIBUTIONS WITH SUPRATHRMAL TAILS AND ANISOTROPIC CORES IN THE SOLAR WIND (after E. Marsch, 2006)
Kinetic-scale Alfvénic turbulence covers the tails’ velocity ranges
• Use kinetic Fokker-Planck equation for protons with diffusion terms due to KAWs
• Calculate proton diffusion (plateo formation) time• Use observed turbulence levels and spectra• Estimate generated tails in the proton VDFs and
compare with observed ones
VELOCITY-SPACE DIFFUSION OF PROTONS: ANALYTICAL THEORY (Voitenko and Pierrard, 2013)NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS Pierrard and Voitenko, 2013)
VELOCITY-SPACE DIFFUSION OF SW PROTONS: ANALYTICAL THEORY (Voitenko and Pierrard, 2013)
KAW velocities cover this range
Proton VDF obtained at 17 Rs assuming a displaced Maxwellian as boundary condition at 14 Rs by the Fokker-Planck evolution equation including Coulomb collisions and KAW turbulence
Proton velocity distributions with tails are reproduced not far from the boundary
VELOCITY-SPACE DIFFUSION OF PROTONS: KINETIC SIMULATIONS (Pierrard and Voitenko, 2013)
Generation of proton tails by turbulence
VzVTp Vph2
Fp
proton diffusion occurs here
VA
DIFFUSION
MHD RANGE
( f ~ k_perp ~ Vz)
SDR kineticWDRkinetic
PUZZLE 3:
REDUCED INTERMITTENCY AT ION SCALES
Alexandrova et al. (2008)
FLATNESS DECREASES AT ION SCALES, WHICH IS COUNTER-INTUITIVE
AW turbulent spectrum (solid line) and ”threshold” spectrum for non-adiabatic ion acceleration (dashed line).Cross-field non-adiabatic ion acceleration is associated with the first spectral kink, where the turbulent spectral power raises above the threshold spectrum.
acceleration
SPECTRALLY LOCALIZED SELECTIVE DISSIPATION
1. Nonlinear kinetics becomes important at scales that are still larger than the ion gyroradius
2. Alfvenic turbulence is formed by weakly/mildly dispersive KAWs3. Main dissipation mechanisms: nonlinear Landau damping and
non-adiabatic ion acceleration
This explains many phenomena revealed by the field and particle observations:
• Steepest spectra at ion scales and double-kink spectral pattern• Suprathermal ion tails and beams along MF• Proton heating across MF• spectrally localized selective dissipation removing highest
amplitudes in the vicinity of the spectral break Reduced intermittency observed by Alexandrova et al. (2008) • switch to weak turbulence and steepest spectra (were
observed by Smith et al. 2006 and Sahraoui et al. 2010)
SUMMARY