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Electron acceleration from the interaction of three crossed parallel Alfvén waves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2022

K. Daiffallah Open the ORCID record for K. Daiffallah [Opens in a new window]
K. Daiffallah*
Affiliation:
Centre de Recherche en Astronomie, Astrophysique et Géophysique CRAAG (Observatory of Algiers), Division Astrophysique Solaire, Route de l'Observatoire, BP 63, Bouzaréah, 16340Algiers, Algeria
*
†Email address for correspondence: k.daiffallah@craag.dz
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Abstract

We study the nonlinear interaction of three parallel Alfvén wave packets (AWPs) in an initially uniform plasma using 2.5-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) numerical simulations. We aim to help to explain the observation of suprathermal electrons by the collision of multiple Alfvén waves in regions where these waves are trapped like the IAR (Ionospheric Alfvén Resonator), Earth radiation belts or coronal magnetic loops. In the context of the acceleration by the parallel Alfvén waves interactions (APAWI) process that has been described by Mottez (Ann. Geophys., vol. 30, issue 1, 2012, pp. 81–95; J. Plasma Phys., vol. 81, issue 1, 2015, p. 325810104), the interaction of two parallel Alfvén waves (AWs) generates longitudinal density modulations and parallel electric fields at the APAWI crossing region that can accelerate particles effectively in the direction of the background magnetic field. Our simulations show that when a third parallel AWP of different initial position arrives at the APAWI crossing region, it gives rise to a strong parallel electron beam ($V \sim 5\text {--}7 V_{Te}$) at longitudinal cavity density gradients. We suggest that velocity drift from an outgoing AW generates interface waves in the transverse direction, which allows propagating waves to develop parallel electric fields by the phase mixing process when $k_{\perp }^{-1}$ of the wavy density gradient (oblique gradient) is in the range of the electron inertial length $c/\omega _{p0}$.

Keywords

plasma nonlinear phenomenaplasma wavesplasma heating
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 88 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , 905880120
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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