Nonlinear Landau resonant interaction between whistler waves and electrons: Excitation of electron acoustic waves

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Ma, Donglai, An, Xin, Artemyev, Anton, Bortnik, Jacob, Angelopoulos, Vassilis, Zhang, Xiao-Jia
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Ma, Donglai
An, Xin
Artemyev, Anton
Bortnik, Jacob
Angelopoulos, Vassilis
Zhang, Xiao-Jia
author_facet Ma, Donglai
An, Xin
Artemyev, Anton
Bortnik, Jacob
Angelopoulos, Vassilis
Zhang, Xiao-Jia
contents Electron acoustic waves (EAWs), as well as electron-acoustic solitary structures, play a crucial role in thermalization and acceleration of electron populations in Earth's magnetosphere. These waves are often observed in association with whistler-mode waves, but the detailed mechanism of EAW and whistler wave coupling is not yet revealed. We investigate the excitation mechanism of EAWs and their potential relation to whistler waves using particle-in-cell simulations. Whistler waves are first excited by electrons with a temperature anisotropy perpendicular to the background magnetic field. Electrons trapped by these whistler waves through nonlinear Landau resonance form localized field-aligned beams, which subsequently excite EAWs. By comparing the growth rate of EAWs and the phase mixing rate of trapped electron beams, we obtain the critical condition for EAW excitation, which is consistent with our simulation results across a wide region in parameter space. These results are expected to be useful in the interpretation of concurrent observations of whistler-mode waves and nonlinear solitary structures, and may also have important implications for investigation of cross-scale energy transfer in the near-Earth space environment.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2308_03938
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Nonlinear Landau resonant interaction between whistler waves and electrons: Excitation of electron acoustic waves
Ma, Donglai
An, Xin
Artemyev, Anton
Bortnik, Jacob
Angelopoulos, Vassilis
Zhang, Xiao-Jia
Plasma Physics
Space Physics
Electron acoustic waves (EAWs), as well as electron-acoustic solitary structures, play a crucial role in thermalization and acceleration of electron populations in Earth's magnetosphere. These waves are often observed in association with whistler-mode waves, but the detailed mechanism of EAW and whistler wave coupling is not yet revealed. We investigate the excitation mechanism of EAWs and their potential relation to whistler waves using particle-in-cell simulations. Whistler waves are first excited by electrons with a temperature anisotropy perpendicular to the background magnetic field. Electrons trapped by these whistler waves through nonlinear Landau resonance form localized field-aligned beams, which subsequently excite EAWs. By comparing the growth rate of EAWs and the phase mixing rate of trapped electron beams, we obtain the critical condition for EAW excitation, which is consistent with our simulation results across a wide region in parameter space. These results are expected to be useful in the interpretation of concurrent observations of whistler-mode waves and nonlinear solitary structures, and may also have important implications for investigation of cross-scale energy transfer in the near-Earth space environment.
title Nonlinear Landau resonant interaction between whistler waves and electrons: Excitation of electron acoustic waves
topic Plasma Physics
Space Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.03938