Please wait a minute...
Chin. Phys. B, 2009, Vol. 18(5): 2101-    DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/18/5/062
GEOPHYSICS, ASTRONOMY, AND ASTROPHYSICS Prev  

Ion pickup by the intrinsic low-frequency Alfvén waves with a spectrum

Lu Quan-Ming(陆全明)a)b), Li Xing(李醒)c), and Dong Chuan-Fei(董川飞)a)
a School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China; b State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China; c Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, SY23 2BZ, UK
Abstract  Ion pickup by a monochromatic low-frequency Alfvén wave, which propagates along the background magnetic field, has recently been investigated in a low beta plasma (Lu and Li 2007 Phys. Plasmas 14 042303). In this paper, the monochromatic Alfvén wave is generalized to a spectrum of Alfvén waves with random phase. It finds that the process of ion pickup can be divided into two stages. First, ions are picked up in the transverse direction, and then phase difference (randomization) between ions due to their different parallel thermal motions leads to heating of the ions. The heating is dominant in the direction perpendicular to the background magnetic field. The temperatures of the ions at the asymptotic stage do not depend on individual waves in the spectrum, but are determined by the total amplitude of the waves. The effect of the initial ion bulk flow in the parallel direction on the heating is also considered in this paper.
Keywords:  ion pickup      Alfvén wave      ion heating      temperature anisotropy  
Received:  22 September 2008      Revised:  19 October 2008      Accepted manuscript online: 
PACS:  52.35.Bj (Magnetohydrodynamic waves (e.g., Alfven waves))  
  52.50.-b (Plasma production and heating)  
  52.65.-y (Plasma simulation)  
Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants Nos 40725013 and 40674093) and Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No KJCX2-YW-N28 9140C08060507ZCZJ19).

Cite this article: 

Lu Quan-Ming(陆全明), Li Xing(李醒), and Dong Chuan-Fei(董川飞) Ion pickup by the intrinsic low-frequency Alfvén waves with a spectrum 2009 Chin. Phys. B 18 2101

[1] Excitation of chorus-like waves by temperature anisotropy in dipole research experiment (DREX): A numerical study
Hua Huang(黄华), Zhi-Bin Wang(王志斌), Xiao-Gang Wang(王晓钢), Xin Tao(陶鑫). Chin. Phys. B, 2018, 27(1): 015201.
[2] Two-dimensional temperature distribution inside a hemispherical bowl-shaped target for plasma source ion implantation
Liu Cheng-Sen (刘成森), Wang Yan-Hui (王艳辉), Wang De-Zhen (王德真). Chin. Phys. B, 2005, 14(1): 163-168.
No Suggested Reading articles found!