Parametric instabilities and particles heating of circularly polarized Alfvén waves with an incoherent spectrum: two-dimensional hybrid simulations

Abstract

Plasma ions heating (especially minor heavy ions preferential heating) in fast solar wind and solar corona is an open question in space physics. However, Alfvén waves have been always considered as a candidate of energy source for corona heating. In this paper, by using a two-dimensional (2-D) hybrid simulation model in a low beta electron-proton-alpha plasma system, we have investigated the relationships between plasma ions heating and power spectra evolution of density and magnetic field fluctuations excited from the parametric instabilities of initial pump Alfvén waves with an incoherent spectrum at different propagation angles theta_k0B0 (an oblique angle between the initial pump wave vector k0 and the background magnetic field B0). It is found that, the wave-wave coupling as well as wave-particle interaction play key roles in ions heating, and an Alfvén spectrum with small propagation angle (e.g. theta_k0B0=15degree) can most effectively heat alpha particles in perpendicular direction as well as in parallel direction for both proton and alpha particle than the case of a monochromatic Alfvén wave or an Alfvén spectrum with larger propagation angle.

36 pages, 16 figures (in the end of the paper)