Collisionless heat flux regulation via electron firehose instability in presence of a core and suprathermal population in the expanding solar wind

Abstract

The evolution of the electron heat flux in the solar wind is regulated by the interplay between several effects: solar wind expansion, that can potentially drive velocity-space instabilties, turbulence and wave-particle interactions, and, possibly, collisions. Here we address the respective role played by the solar wind expansion and the electron firehose instability, developing in the presence of multiple electron populations, in regulating the heat flux. We carry out fully kinetic, Expanding Box Model simulations and separately analyze the enthalpy, bulk and velocity distribution function skewness contributions for each of the electron species. We observe that the key factor determining electron energy flux evolution is the reduction of the drift velocity of the electron populations in the rest frame of the solar wind. In our simulations, redistribution of the electron thermal energy from the parallel to the perpendicular direction after the onset of the electron firehose instability is observed. However, this process seems to impact energy flux evolution only minimally. Hence, reduction of the electron species drift velocity in the solar wind frame appears to directly correlate with efficiency for heat flux instabilities

References in corpus (2)

• Scattering of Strahl Electrons in the Solar Wind between 0.3 and 1 au: Helios Observations
• Whistler wave generation by halo electrons in the solar wind

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Precision Electron Measurements in the Solar Wind at 1 au from NASA's Wind Spacecraft
• On the role of solar wind expansion as a source of whistler waves: scattering of suprathermal electrons and heat flux regulation in the inner heliosphere
• Electron Heat Flux in the Solar Wind: Generalized Approaches to Fluid Transport with a Variety of Skewed Velocity Distributions
• Energy transport during 3D small-scale reconnection driven by anisotropic plasma turbulence
• Quasi-parallel anti-sunward propagating whistler waves associated to the electron-deficit in the near-Sun solar wind: Particle-in-Cell simulation
• Formation of Suprathermal Electron Populations in the Expanding, Turbulent Solar Wind