Whistler instabilities from the interplay of electron anisotropies in space plasmas: A quasilinear approach

Abstract

Recent statistical studies of observational data unveil relevant correlations between whistler fluctuations and the anisotropic electron populations present in space plasmas, e.g., solar wind and planetary magnetospheres. Locally, whistlers can be excited by two sources of free energy associated with anisotropic electrons, i.e., temperature anisotropies and beaming populations carrying the heat flux. However, these two sources of free energy and the resulting instabilities are usually studied independently preventing a realistic interpretation of their interplay. This paper presents the results of a parametric quasilinear study of the whistler instability cumulatively driven by two counter-drifting electron populations and their anisotropic temperatures. By comparison to individual regimes dominated either by beaming population or by temperature anisotropy, in a transitory regime the instability becomes highly conditioned by the effects of both these two sources of free energy. Cumulative effects stimulate the instability and enhance the resulting fluctuations, which interact with electrons and stimulate their diffusion in velocity space, leading to a faster and deeper relaxation of the beaming velocity associated with a core heating in perpendicular direction and a thermalization of the beaming electrons. In particular, the relaxation of temperature anisotropy to quasi-stable states below the thresholds conditions predicted by linear theory may explain the observations showing the accumulation of these states near the isotropy and equipartition of energy.

accepted for publication at MNRAS

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• General dispersion properties of magnetized plasmas with drifting bi-Kappa distributions. DIS-K: DIspersion Solver for Kappa plasmas
• On quasi-parallel whistler waves in the solar wind
• Electron energy partition across interplanetary shocks: III. Analysis
• Towards a general quasi-linear approach for the instabilities of bi-Kappa plasmas. Whistler instability
• Electron Temperature Anisotropy and Electron Beam Constraints From Electron Kinetic Instabilities in the Solar Wind
• On the interplay of solar wind proton and electron instabilities: Linear and quasi-linear approaches