Kinetic models of tangential discontinuities in the solar wind

Abstract

Kinetic-scale current sheets observed in the solar wind are frequently approximately force-free despite the fact that their plasma $\beta$ is of the order of one. In-situ measurements have recently shown that plasma density and temperature often vary across the current sheets, while the plasma pressure is approximately uniform. In many cases these density and temperature variations are asymmetric with respect to the center of the current sheet. To model these observations theoretically we develop in this paper equilibria of kinetic-scale force-free current sheets that have plasma density and temperature gradients. The models can also be useful for analysis of stability and dissipation of the current sheets in the solar wind.

11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (4)

• Magnetic reconnection as a driver for a sub-ion scale cascade in plasma turbulence
• A one-dimensional Vlasov-Maxwell equilibrium for the force-free Harris sheet
• Some remarks on one-dimensional force-free Vlasov-Maxwell equilibria
• Force-free collisionless current sheet models with non-uniform temperature and density profiles

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Kinetic-scale current sheets in near-Sun solar wind: properties, scale-dependent features and reconnection onset
• Solar wind discontinuity transformation at the bow shock
• A family of Vlasov-Maxwell equilibrium distribution functions describing a transition from the Harris sheet to the force-free Harris sheet
• Force-free current sheets in the Jovian magnetodisk: the key role of electron field-aligned anisotropy
• Kinetic equilibrium of two-dimensional force-free current sheets
• Regimes of charged particle dynamics in current sheets: the machine learning approach