The Nature of Subproton Scale Turbulence in the Solar Wind

Abstract

The nature of subproton scale fluctuations in the solar wind is an open question, partly because two similar types of electromagnetic turbulence can occur: kinetic Alfven turbulence and whistler turbulence. These two possibilities, however, have one key qualitative difference: whistler turbulence, unlike kinetic Alfven turbulence, has negligible power in density fluctuations. In this Letter, we present new observational data, as well as analytical and numerical results, to investigate this difference. The results show, for the first time, that the fluctuations well below the proton scale are predominantly kinetic Alfven turbulence, and, if present at all, the whistler fluctuations make up only a small fraction of the total energy.

References in corpus (8)

• Kinetic Simulations of Magnetized Turbulence in Astrophysical Plasmas
• Small Scale Energy Cascade of the Solar Wind Turbulence
• Wave turbulence in incompressible Hall MHD
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• Density Fluctuation Spectrum of Solar Wind Turbulence between Ion and Electron Scales
• Kinetic plasma turbulence in the fast solar wind measured by Cluster
• Whistler Wave Cascade in Solar Wind Plasma
• Parallel Electric Field Spectrum of Solar Wind Turbulence

Cited by in corpus (85)

• The multi-scale nature of the solar wind
• Solar Wind Turbulence and the Role of Ion Instabilities
• Firehose and Mirror Instabilities in a Collisionless Shearing Plasma
• Scaling of the electron dissipation range of solar wind turbulence
• Nature of Kinetic Scale Turbulence in the Earth's Magnetosheath
• Multiscale nature of the dissipation range in gyrokinetic simulations of Alfvénic turbulence
• Magnetorotational Turbulence and Dynamo in a Collisionless Plasma
• Kinetic Turbulence in the Terrestrial Magnetosheath: Cluster Observations
• Predicted Impacts of Proton Temperature Anisotropy on Solar Wind Turbulence
• Hybrid-Kinetic Simulations of Ion Heating in Alfvénic Turbulence
• Statistical Study of Whistler Waves in the Solar Wind at 1 AU
• Measuring Collisionless Damping in Heliospheric Plasmas using Field-Particle Correlations
• Fully Kinetic Simulation of 3D Kinetic Alfven Turbulence
• Validity of the Taylor Hypothesis for Linear Kinetic Waves in the Weakly Collisional Solar Wind
• A Dynamical Model of Plasma Turbulence in the Solar Wind
• Solar wind turbulent cascade from MHD to sub-ion scales: large-size 3D hybrid particle-in-cell simulations
• Diagnosing collisionless energy transfer using field-particle correlations: gyrokinetic turbulence
• Kinetic cascade in solar-wind turbulence: 3D3V hybrid-kinetic simulations with electron inertia
• Intermittency of Solar Wind Density Fluctuations From Ion to Electron Scales
• On Kinetic Slow Modes, Fluid Slow Modes, and Pressure-balanced Structures in the Solar Wind
• Von Karman-Howarth equation for Hall magnetohydrodynamics: Hybrid simulations
• Collisionless Isotropization of the Solar-Wind Protons by Compressive Fluctuations and Plasma Instabilities
• Fully kinetic versus reduced-kinetic modelling of collisionless plasma turbulence
• Subproton-scale cascades in solar wind turbulence: driven hybrid-kinetic simulations
• Physical Interpretation of the Angle Dependent Magnetic Helicity Spectrum in the Solar Wind: The Nature of Turbulent Fluctuations near the Proton Gyroradius Scale
• The Violation of the Taylor Hypothesis in Measurements of Solar Wind Turbulence
• Solar wind turbulence from MHD to sub-ion scales: high-resolution hybrid simulations
• Inner-Heliosphere Signatures of Ion-Scale Dissipation and Nonlinear Interaction
• Coherent structures and spectral energy transfer in turbulent plasma: a space-filter approach
• Kinetic Turbulence in Astrophysical Plasmas: Waves and/or Structures?
• Exact law for homogeneous compressible Hall magnetohydrodynamics turbulence
• Nonlinear evolution of the whistler heat flux instability
• Reconnection and electron temperature anisotropy in sub-proton scale plasma turbulence
• Diagnosing collisionless energy transfer using field-particle correlations: Alfven-Ion Cyclotron Turbulence
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• The Enhancement of Proton Stochastic Heating in the near-Sun Solar Wind
• A model for the non-universal power-law of the solar wind sub-ion scale magnetic spectrum
• Constraints on ion vs. electron heating by plasma turbulence at low beta
• Kinetic Alfvén waves generation by large-scale phase-mixing
• Kinetic theory of the electron strahl in the solar wind
• The Ion Transition Range of Solar Wind Turbulence in the Inner Heliosphere: Parker Solar Probe Observations
• Fluid and gyrofluid modeling of low-${\beta }_e$ plasmas: phenomenology of kinetic Alfvén wave turbulence
• Spectral breaks of Alfvenic turbulence in a collisionless plasma
• Extended MHD turbulence and its applications to the solar wind
• Transition to kinetic turbulence at proton scales driven by large-amplitude Kinetic Alfvèn fluctuations
• Three-dimensional simulations of solar wind turbulence with the hybrid code CAMELIA
• Kinetic turbulence in fast 3D collisionless guide-field magnetic reconnection
• Spectral transfer and Kármán-Howarth-Monin equations for compressible Hall magnetohydrodynamics
• Variability Of The Magnetic Field Power Spectrum In The Solar Wind At Electron Scales
• Anisotropies of the magnetic field fluctuations at kinetic scales in the solar wind : Cluster observations
• Modeling Kelvin-Helmholtz instability-driven turbulence with hybrid simulations of Alfvénic turbulence
• Comparative study of gyrokinetic, hybrid-kinetic and fully kinetic wave physics for space plasmas
• Vlasov simulations of Kinetic Alfvén Waves at proton kinetic scales
• Magnetic Field Rotations in the Solar Wind at Kinetic Scales
• Electron MHD: dynamics and turbulence
• Coronal turbulence and the angular broadening of radio sources - the role of the structure function
• Spacetime Hall-MHD turbulence at sub-ion scales: structures or waves?
• Electromagnetic instabilities and plasma turbulence driven by electron-temperature gradient
• The Fluid-like Behavior of Kinetic Alfvén Turbulence in Space Plasma
• Entanglement of helicity and energy in kinetic Alfven wave/whistler turbulence
• Subion Scale Turbulence Driven by Magnetic Reconnection
• A Model for Dissipation of Solar Wind Magnetic Turbulence by Kinetic Alfvén Waves at Electron Scales: Comparison with Observations
• Reconnection outflow generated turbulence in the solar wind
• The role of parametric instabilities in turbulence generation and proton heating: Hybrid simulations of parallel propagating Alfvén waves
• Magnetic helicity signature and its role in regulating magnetic energy spectra and proton temperatures in the solar wind
• -8/3 spectrum in kinetic Alfvén wave turbulence: implications for the solar wind
• Kinetic Alfvén wave generation by velocity shear in collisionless plasmas
• Two-dimensional Hybrid Simulations of Kinetic Plasma Turbulence: Current and Vorticity vs Proton Temperature
• Kinetic Scale Spectral Features of Cross Helicity and Residual Energy in the Inner Heliosphere
• The Stability of the Electron Strahl against the Oblique Fast-magnetosonic/Whistler Instability in the Inner Heliosphere
• Sub-ion scale Compressive Turbulence in the Solar wind: MMS spacecraft potential observations
• Dissipation scale lengths of density turbulence in the inner solar wind
• Estimation of the electron density from spacecraft potential during high frequency electric field fluctuations
• Sub-grid-scale effects in magnetised plasma turbulence
• The effect of variations in magnetic field direction from turbulence on kinetic-scale instabilities
• Growth of Outward Propagating Fast-Magnetosonic/Whistler Waves in the Inner Heliosphere Observed by Parker Solar Probe
• Large-scale Control of Kinetic Dissipation in the Solar Wind
• The effects of finite electron inertia on helicity-barrier-mediated turbulence
• Ion-scale Turbulence and Energy Cascade Rate in the Solar Corona and Inner Heliosphere
• Turbulent heating in collisionless low-beta plasmas: imbalance, Landau damping, and electron-ion energy partition
• Anisotropic electron heating in turbulence-driven magnetic reconnection in the near-Sun solar wind
• ALLIANCE: Spectral solver for kinetic plasma turbulence
• Magnetic field turbulence in the solar wind at sub-ion scales: in situ observations and numerical simulations
• Introduction to Strong Alfvénic MHD Turbulence
• Current sheets, plasmoids and flux ropes in the heliosphere. Part II: Theoretical aspects