Kinetic Alfvén solitary waves in a plasma with two-temperature superthermal electron populations: the case of Saturn’s magnetosphere

Thanks to the evidence provided by the Cassini spacecraft mission, it is now established that Saturn’s magnetospheric plasma consists of various types of positive ions, as well as two distinct populations of electrons, at different temperatures. The electron population energy distributions are chara...

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Main Author: Kourakis, Ioannis (author)
Other Authors: Singh, Manpreet (author), Saini, N S (author)
Published: 2019
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12458/360
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author Kourakis, Ioannis
author2 Singh, Manpreet
Saini, N S
author2_role author
author
author_facet Kourakis, Ioannis
Singh, Manpreet
Saini, N S
author_role author
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Kourakis, Ioannis
Singh, Manpreet
Saini, N S
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2019-06-13T10:04:07Z
2019-06-13T10:04:07Z
2019
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol 486(4), 2019, p 5504-5518
0035-8711
1365-2966
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12458/360
10.1093/mnras/stz1221
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv en
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
4
486
5504
5518
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Kinetic Alfvén solitary waves in a plasma with two-temperature superthermal electron populations: the case of Saturn’s magnetosphere
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Controlled Vocabulary for Resource Type Genres::text::periodical::journal::contribution to journal::journal article
description Thanks to the evidence provided by the Cassini spacecraft mission, it is now established that Saturn’s magnetospheric plasma consists of various types of positive ions, as well as two distinct populations of electrons, at different temperatures. The electron population energy distributions are characterized by long suprathermal tails and have been effectively modelled by kappa-type distributions. Plasma properties are known to vary along the radial direction. A strong magnetic field penetrates the magnetosphere, hence the plasma beta is small, β < 1 for radial distance < 15.2RS (where RS = 60 330 km is the Saturn’s radius). Motivated by these observations, we have investigated the conditions for existence and the dynamics of linear and non-linear kinetic Alfv´en waves (KAWs) in Saturn’s magnetosphere. We have considered a low-β (stronglymagnetized) plasma, comprising of positive ions and two electron populations (‘cold’ and ‘hot’) characterized by non-Maxwellian (kappa) distributions. In the small-amplitude regime, harmonic analysis leads to a linear dispersion relation bearing explicit dependence on the characteristics of the suprathermal components. In the nonlinear regime, large-amplitude stationary profile kinetic Alfv´en solitary wave solutions are obtained via a two-component pseudopotential method, associated with either positive or negative potential structures (pulses) propagating at sub- and super-Alfv´enic speeds, respectively. The effect of various intrinsic plasma configuration properties (hot-to-cold electron density and temperature ratio; superthermality indices κc and κh; plasma beta) as well as propagation parameters (pulse speed, direction of propagation) on the characteristics of KAW solitary waves are discussed
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identifier_str_mv Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol 486(4), 2019, p 5504-5518
0035-8711
1365-2966
10.1093/mnras/stz1221
language_invalid_str_mv en
network_acronym_str sorbonner
network_name_str Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi repository
oai_identifier_str oai:depot.sorbonne.ae:20.500.12458/360
publishDate 2019
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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spelling Kinetic Alfvén solitary waves in a plasma with two-temperature superthermal electron populations: the case of Saturn’s magnetosphereKourakis, IoannisSingh, ManpreetSaini, N SThanks to the evidence provided by the Cassini spacecraft mission, it is now established that Saturn’s magnetospheric plasma consists of various types of positive ions, as well as two distinct populations of electrons, at different temperatures. The electron population energy distributions are characterized by long suprathermal tails and have been effectively modelled by kappa-type distributions. Plasma properties are known to vary along the radial direction. A strong magnetic field penetrates the magnetosphere, hence the plasma beta is small, β < 1 for radial distance < 15.2RS (where RS = 60 330 km is the Saturn’s radius). Motivated by these observations, we have investigated the conditions for existence and the dynamics of linear and non-linear kinetic Alfv´en waves (KAWs) in Saturn’s magnetosphere. We have considered a low-β (stronglymagnetized) plasma, comprising of positive ions and two electron populations (‘cold’ and ‘hot’) characterized by non-Maxwellian (kappa) distributions. In the small-amplitude regime, harmonic analysis leads to a linear dispersion relation bearing explicit dependence on the characteristics of the suprathermal components. In the nonlinear regime, large-amplitude stationary profile kinetic Alfv´en solitary wave solutions are obtained via a two-component pseudopotential method, associated with either positive or negative potential structures (pulses) propagating at sub- and super-Alfv´enic speeds, respectively. The effect of various intrinsic plasma configuration properties (hot-to-cold electron density and temperature ratio; superthermality indices κc and κh; plasma beta) as well as propagation parameters (pulse speed, direction of propagation) on the characteristics of KAW solitary waves are discussed2019-06-13T10:04:07Z2019-06-13T10:04:07Z2019Controlled Vocabulary for Resource Type Genres::text::periodical::journal::contribution to journal::journal articleapplication/pdfMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol 486(4), 2019, p 5504-55180035-87111365-2966http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12458/36010.1093/mnras/stz1221enMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society448655045518oai:depot.sorbonne.ae:20.500.12458/3602023-12-05T06:07:34Z
spellingShingle Kinetic Alfvén solitary waves in a plasma with two-temperature superthermal electron populations: the case of Saturn’s magnetosphere
Kourakis, Ioannis
title Kinetic Alfvén solitary waves in a plasma with two-temperature superthermal electron populations: the case of Saturn’s magnetosphere
title_full Kinetic Alfvén solitary waves in a plasma with two-temperature superthermal electron populations: the case of Saturn’s magnetosphere
title_fullStr Kinetic Alfvén solitary waves in a plasma with two-temperature superthermal electron populations: the case of Saturn’s magnetosphere
title_full_unstemmed Kinetic Alfvén solitary waves in a plasma with two-temperature superthermal electron populations: the case of Saturn’s magnetosphere
title_short Kinetic Alfvén solitary waves in a plasma with two-temperature superthermal electron populations: the case of Saturn’s magnetosphere
title_sort Kinetic Alfvén solitary waves in a plasma with two-temperature superthermal electron populations: the case of Saturn’s magnetosphere
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12458/360