Pressure tensor in the presence of velocity shear: stationary solutions and self-consistent equilibria

Abstract

Observations and numerical simulations of laboratory and space plasmas in almost collisionless regimes reveal anisotropic and non-gyrotropic particle distribution functions. We investigate how such states can persist in the presence of a sheared flow. We focus our attention on the pressure tensor equation in a magnetized plasma and derive analytical self-consistent plasma equilibria which exhibit a novel asymmetry with respect to the magnetic field direction. These results are relevant for investigating, within fluid models that retain the full pressure tensor dynamics, plasma configurations where a background shear flow is present.

arXiv comment13 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Energy transfer, pressure tensor and heating of kinetic plasma
• Pressure anisotropy and small spatial scales induced by velocity shear
• Transition to kinetic turbulence at proton scales driven by large-amplitude Kinetic Alfvèn fluctuations
• Exact hybrid-Vlasov equilibria for sheared plasmas with in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic field
• Kelvin-Helmholtz instability at proton scales with an exact kinetic equilibrium
• "Magneto-elastic" waves in an anisotropic magnetised plasma
• Space-filter techniques for quasi-neutral hybrid-kinetic models
• Turbulent magneto-genesis in a collisionless plasma
• Pressure anisotropy generation in a magnetized plasma configuration with a shear flow velocity
• Interplay between Kelvin-Helmholtz and Lower-Hybrid Drift instabilities
• The fully kinetic Biermann battery and associated generation of pressure anisotropy
• Finite-Larmor-radius equilibrium and currents of the Earth's flank magnetopause
• Exact hybrid-kinetic equilibria for magnetized plasmas with shearing flows