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Diagnosing collisionless energy transfer using field–particle correlations: Alfvén-ion cyclotron turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2020

Kristopher G. Klein*
Affiliation:
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85719, USA
Gregory G. Howes
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA52242, USA
Jason M. TenBarge
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ08544, USA
Francesco Valentini
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria, I-87036Cosenza, Italy
*
Email address for correspondence: kgklein@lpl.arizona.edu
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Abstract

We apply field–particle correlations – a technique that tracks the time-averaged velocity-space structure of the energy density transfer rate between electromagnetic fields and plasma particles – to data drawn from a hybrid Vlasov–Maxwell simulation of Alfvén-ion cyclotron turbulence. Energy transfer in this system is expected to include both Landau and cyclotron wave–particle resonances, unlike previous systems to which the field–particle correlation technique has been applied. In this simulation, the energy transfer rate mediated by the parallel electric field $E_{\Vert }$ comprises approximately 60 % of the total rate, with the remainder mediated by the perpendicular electric field $E_{\bot }$. The parallel electric field resonantly couples to protons, with the canonical bipolar velocity-space signature of Landau damping identified at many points throughout the simulation. The energy transfer mediated by $E_{\bot }$ preferentially couples to particles with $v_{tp}\lesssim v_{\bot }\lesssim 3v_{tp}$, where $v_{tp}$ is the proton thermal speed, in agreement with the expected formation of a cyclotron diffusion plateau. Our results demonstrate clearly that the field–particle correlation technique can distinguish distinct channels of energy transfer using single-point measurements, even at points in which multiple channels act simultaneously, and can be used to determine quantitatively the rates of particle energization in each channel.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Eigenfunction relations for the Alfvén dispersion surface as a function of $\boldsymbol{k}\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{p}$ for a $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}_{p}=1$ plasma (in which $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{p}=d_{p}$). (a) The normalized total proton damping rate $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{p}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}$ from (2.1). (b) The normalized parallel phase velocity $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}/k_{\Vert }v_{A}$. (c) The fraction of the proton damping rate due to the Landau resonance. (d) The fraction of the proton damping rate due to the cyclotron resonance. The boxes outline the wavevector ranges for HVM simulations presented here (black) and in previous gyrokinetic simulations of low-frequency, strong turbulence (red) Klein et al. (2017). The red dots indicate the values of $(|k_{\bot }|,|k_{\Vert }|)\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{p}$ with initialized Alfvén waves for the HVM simulation. The grey region in the upper left-hand corner shows where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{p}>\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}$, and the white region in the upper right-hand corner shows where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}=0$.

Figure 1

Figure 2. (a,b) Frequency power spectral density for electric and magnetic fields extracted from the 64 spatial points throughout the HVM simulation used in this work (grey). The initialized frequencies $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{0}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{p}$ are indicated with an arrow on the left-hand side. The frequency ranges accessible to the Alfvén and fast dispersion surfaces for this simulation are indicated with horizontal arrows.

Figure 2

Figure 3. Velocity integrated correlations at a single point in the simulation domain for a range of correlation intervals $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{p}$, indicated in colour. (a,b) Energy density transfer rates $\unicode[STIX]{x2202}_{t}\bar{w}_{E_{\Vert }}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x2202}_{t}\bar{w}_{E_{\bot }}$. (c,d) Accumulated energy density transferred $\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\bar{w}_{E_{\Vert }}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\bar{w}_{E_{\bot }}$. The thick black line indicates the correlation interval $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{p}=22.5$ used in the remainder of this work.

Figure 3

Figure 4. Typical velocity-space signatures of (a) ion-cyclotron damping and (b) ion Landau damping for point 40 at time $t\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{p}=24.66$ using a correlation interval $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{p}=22.5$, showing that the field–particle correlation technique can recover, using single-point measurements, the signatures of both energization mechanisms acting simultaneously at the same point in space. Curved dashed lines in (a) indicate contours of constant energy in the ion-cyclotron wave-frame. The vertical dashed lines in (b) indicate the resonant velocities for the largest simulated scale (purple) and the most strongly Landau damped Alfvén waves (green).

Figure 4

Figure 5. Time-averaged reduced proton velocity distributions and their standard deviation measured at a single spatial point (a,b) and the associated reduced correlations $C_{E_{\bot ,\Vert }}(v_{\Vert })$ (c) and $C_{E_{\bot ,\Vert }}(v_{\bot })$ (d). The vertical dashed lines in (c) indicate the dominant parallel resonant velocities for the simulation, while the black dashed line in (d) represents the best fit to $C_{E_{\bot }}(v_{\bot })$.

Figure 5

Figure 6. Mean secular energy density transfer rate between the protons and $E_{\bot }$ at four points throughout the HVM simulation, $\langle C_{E_{\bot }}\rangle _{T}$, (b). The velocity-dependent standard deviation at each point is added to or subtracted from the mean in (c) and (a). Contours of constant energy in the wave frame of forward and backward propagating Alfvén-ion cyclotron waves are shown in purple.

Figure 6

Figure 7. Mean secular energy density transfer rate between the protons and $E_{\Vert }$ at the same four points considered in figure 6, $\langle C_{E_{\Vert }}\rangle _{T}$, (b), with the velocity-dependent standard deviation added to or subtracted from the mean in (c) and (a). The Landau resonant velocity for the largest simulated and the most strongly Landau damped Alfvén waves are shown in purple and green.

Figure 7

Figure 8. Reduced field–particle correlations $C_{E_{\bot }}(v_{\bot })$ with (a) $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0$ and (b) $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{p}=22.5$ and $C_{E_{\Vert }}(v_{\Vert })$ with (c) $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0$ and (d) $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{p}=22.5$. The lower panels of columns (ad) show the time-averaged, velocity-dependent energy transfer rate, with the mean in black and one standard deviation in red. (e) The velocity-integrated spatial energy density transfer rates $\unicode[STIX]{x2202}_{t}\bar{w}_{E_{\bot }}$ (green) and $\unicode[STIX]{x2202}_{t}\bar{w}_{E_{\Vert }}$ (black) are shown for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{p}=0$ (dashed) and $22.5$ (solid).

Figure 8

Figure 9. Reduced field–particle correlations, organized in the same format at figure 8 but for point 8. At this point, there is a net transfer of energy from the protons to $E_{\Vert }$ and $E_{\bot }$, with $E_{\Vert }$ receiving more energy.

Figure 9

Figure 10. Reduced field–particle correlations, organized in the same format at figure 8 but for point 35. At this point, there is a net transfer of energy to the protons via $E_{\Vert }$, and very little transfer of energy mediated by $E_{\bot }$.

Figure 10

Figure 11. Reduced field–particle correlations, organized in the same format at figure 8 but for point 19. At this point, there is relatively little net transfer of energy between the protons and the electric field.

Figure 11

Figure 12. (ad) Components of the energy density transfer rate $\unicode[STIX]{x2202}_{t}\bar{w}$ due to the electric field (blue), magnetic field (green), and the ballistic term (red), as well as the overall transfer rate (black) at four points in the simulation domain. (e) The mean and standard deviation of the ballistic and instantaneous (correlation length $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0$) electric field transfer rates at each spatial point. (f) The mean and standard deviation of the transfer rate due to the perpendicular and parallel electric field, with correlation length $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{p}=22.5$.

Figure 12

Figure 13. (a,b) Normalized frequency $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}(\boldsymbol{k}\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{p})/\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{p}$, (c,d) electric-field polarization $\text{Pol}_{E_{xy}}(\boldsymbol{k}\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{p})$, equation (A 1) and (e,f) density–magnetic-field correlation $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}n,\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}B_{\Vert }\rangle (\boldsymbol{k}\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{p})$, equation (A 2), for the Alfvén and fast dispersion surfaces over wavevectors simulated in this work. The grey lines indicate parallel, oblique and perpendicular cuts used for comparison to frequency series in figure 14.

Figure 13

Figure 14. Electric-field polarization, equation (A 1), and density–magnetic-field correlation, equation (A 2), calculated from frequency spectra drawn from the four spatial points investigated in this work. Expectations from linear theory along the grey arrows in figure 13 for both the Alfvén and fast dispersion surfaces are indicated with dashed lines.