Prediction of the Proton-to-Total Turbulent Heating in the Solar Wind

Abstract

This paper employs a recent turbulent heating prescription to predict the ratio of proton-to-total heating due to the kinetic dissipation of Alfvenic turbulence as a function of heliocentric distance. Comparing to a recent empirical estimate for this turbulent heating ratio in the high-speed solar wind, the prediction shows good agreement with the empirical estimate for R >~ 0.8 AU, but predicts less ion heating than the empirical estimate at smaller heliocentric radii. At these smaller radii, the turbulent heating prescription, calculated in the gyrokinetic limit, fails because the turbulent cascade is predicted to reach the proton cyclotron frequency before Landau damping terminates the cascade. These findings suggest that the turbulent cascade can reach the proton cyclotron frequency at R <~ 0.8 AU, leading to a higher level of proton heating than predicted by the turbulent heating prescription in the gyrokinetic limit. At larger heliocentric radii, R >~ 0.8 AU, this turbulent heating prescription contains all of the necessary physical mechanisms needed to reproduce the empirically estimated proton-to-total heating ratio.

7 pages, 2 figures, accepted to Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (5)

• Kinetic Simulations of Magnetized Turbulence in Astrophysical Plasmas
• A prescription for the turbulent heating of astrophysical plasmas
• Alfven Wave Turbulence and Perpendicular Ion Temperatures in Coronal Holes
• Inertial range turbulence in kinetic plasmas
• Energy transfer and dual cascade in kinetic magnetized plasma turbulence

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Two-temperature, Magnetically Arrested Disc simulations of the jet from the supermassive black hole in M87
• The role of electron heating physics in images and variability of the Galactic Centre black hole Sagittarius A*
• The Disc-Jet Symbiosis Emerges: Modeling the Emission of Sagittarius A* with Electron Thermodynamics
• A Dynamical Model of Plasma Turbulence in the Solar Wind
• Validity of the Taylor Hypothesis for Linear Kinetic Waves in the Weakly Collisional Solar Wind
• Two-Temperature GRRMHD Simulations of M87
• Proton, Electron, and Ion Heating in the Fast Solar Wind from Nonlinear Coupling Between Alfvenic and Fast-Mode Turbulence
• Physical Interpretation of the Angle Dependent Magnetic Helicity Spectrum in the Solar Wind: The Nature of Turbulent Fluctuations near the Proton Gyroradius Scale
• Radial evolution of the wave-vector anisotropy of solar wind turbulence between 0.3 and 1 AU
• Laboratory Space Physics: Investigating the Physics of Space Plasmas in the Laboratory
• Constraints on ion vs. electron heating by plasma turbulence at low beta
• Temperature properties in magnetised and radiatively cooled two-temperature accretion flows onto a black hole
• Variability in GRMHD simulations of Sgr A${}^{\ast }$: Implications for EHT closure phase observations
• Estimation of turbulent proton and electron heating rates via Landau damping constrained by Parker Solar Probe observations
• Velocity-Space Proton Diffusion in the Solar Wind Turbulence