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Gary et al. 2006
Gary, S.P., Yin, L. and Winske, D. (2006). Alfvén-cyclotron scattering of solar wind ions: Hybrid simulations. Journal of Geophysical Research 111: doi: 10.1029/2005JA011552. issn: 0148-0227.

This paper describes results from ensembles of hybrid simulations of steady, homogeneous, collisionless plasmas characterized by average solar wind parameters near 1 AU upon which damped, resonant Alfv¿n-cyclotron fluctuations are imposed. The applied fluctuations propagate parallel to the background magnetic field Bo. The ensembles yield late-time proton and alpha particle responses to such fluctuations as functions of the initial magnitude of the applied fluctuating magnetic field energy and the initial vαp/vA (where vαp is the alpha/proton relative speed and vA is the Alfv¿n speed). The simulations show a strong, consistent negative correlation between the alpha temperature anisotropy T$perp$α/T$parallel$α (where the directional subscripts refer to directions perpendicular and parallel to Bo) and vαp/vA. On average the simulations also show a weaker, positive correlation between the proton temperature anisotropy and vαp/vA. Both correlations are in agreement with statistical observations from the solar wind near 1 AU, thereby confirming earlier conclusions that such observations are signatures of Alfv¿n-cyclotron scattering of ions in the solar wind.

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Abstract

Keywords
Space Plasma Physics, Wave/particle interactions (2483, 6984), Space Plasma Physics, Kinetic waves and instabilities, Interplanetary Physics, Plasma waves and turbulence, Interplanetary Physics, Solar wind plasma
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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