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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH,
VOL. 109,
A02109,
doi:10.1029/2003JA010239,
2004
Kinetic Alfvén waves: Linear theory and a particle-in-cell simulation
S. Peter Gary
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
Kazumi Nishimura
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
Abstract
An Alfvén-cyclotron fluctuation of sufficiently short wavelength has a strong proton cyclotron resonance at propagation parallel
to the background magnetic field B
o
in a homogeneous, collisionless electron-proton plasma. As k
∥, the wavevector component parallel to B
o
, decreases, the proton cyclotron wave-particle interaction becomes nonresonant, and the electron Landau resonance becomes
effective at propagation oblique to B
o
. Here linear Vlasov theory is used to determine the dispersion and damping properties of Alfvén-cyclotron fluctuations associated
with the transition from the proton cyclotron resonance regime to the electron Landau resonance regime. Also, a particle-in-cell
plasma simulation is used to examine the electron response to the initial imposition of an Alfvén-cyclotron wave in the electron
Landau resonance regime. The computation shows heating of the electrons in the direction parallel to B
o
and the formation of a beam in the direction of the parallel component of k.
Received 15
September
2003;
accepted 10
December
2003;
published 14
February
2004.
Index Terms: 2159 Interplanetary Physics: Plasma waves and turbulence; 7509 Solar Physics, Astrophysics, and Astronomy: Corona; 7827 Space Plasma Physics: Kinetic and MHD theory; 7843 Space Plasma Physics: Numerical simulation studies.
Read Full Article (file size: 1377809 bytes) Cited by
Citation: Gary, S. P., and K. Nishimura
(2004),
Kinetic Alfvén waves: Linear theory and a particle-in-cell simulation,
J. Geophys. Res.,
109,
A02109,
doi:10.1029/2003JA010239.
Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union.
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