Anisotropic diffusion of galactic cosmic ray protons and their steady-state azimuthal distribution

Galactic transport models for cosmic rays involve the diffusive motion of these particles in the interstellar medium. Due to the large-scale structured galactic magnetic field this diffusion is anisotropic with respect to the local field direction. We included this transport effect along with continuous loss processes in a quantitative model of galactic propagation for cosmic ray protons which is based on stochastic differential equations. We calculated energy spectra at different positions along the Sun's galactic orbit and compared them to the isotropic diffusion case. The results show that a larger amplitude of variation as well as different spectral shapes are obtained in the introduced anisotropic diffusion scenario and emphasize the need for accurate galactic magnetic field models.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&

The interaction of multiple stellar winds in stellar clusters: potential flow

While several studies have investigated large-scale cluster winds resulting from an intra-cluster interaction of multiple stellar winds, as yet they have not provided details of the bordering flows inside a given cluster. The present work explores the principal structure of the combined flow resulting from the interaction of multiple stellar winds inside stellar clusters. The theory of complex potentials is applied to analytically investigate stagnation points, boundaries between individual outflows, and the hydrodynamic structure of the asymptotic large-scale cluster wind. In a second part, these planar considerations are extended to fully three-dimensional, asymmetric configurations of wind-driving stars. We find (i) that one can distinguish regions in the large-scale cluster wind that are determined by the individual stellar winds, (ii) that there are comparatively narrow outflow channels, and (iii) that the large-scale cluster wind asymptotically approaches spherical symmetry at large distances. The combined flow inside a stellar cluster resulting from the interaction of multiple stellar winds is highly structured.Comment: 8 pages, 8 Figure

Electron holes in a regularized kappa background

The pseudopotential method is used to derive electron hole structures in a suprathermal plasma with a regularized κ probability distribution function background. The regularized character allows the exploration of small κ values beyond the standard suprathermal case for which κ > 3/2 is a necessary condition. We found the nonlinear dispersion relation yielding the amplitude of the electrostatic potential in terms of the remaining parameters, in particular the drift velocity, the wavenumber and the spectral index. Periodic, solitary wave, drifting and non-drifting solutions have been identified. In the linear limit, the dispersion relation yields generalized Langmuir and electron acoustic plasma modes. Standard electron hole structures are regained in the κ 1 limit

Electron Holes in a Regularized Kappa Background

The pseudopotential method is used to derive electron hole structures in a suprathermal plasma having a regularized $\kappa$ probability distribution function background. The regularized character allows the exploration of small $\kappa$ values beyond the standard suprathermal case, for which $\kappa > 3/2$ is a necessary condition. We have found the nonlinear dispersion relation yielding the amplitude of the electrostatic potential in terms of the remaining parameters, in particular the drift velocity, the wavenumber and the spectral index. Periodic, solitary wave, drifting and non-drifting solutions have been identified. In the linear limit, the dispersion relation yields generalized Langmuir and electron acoustic plasma modes. Standard electron hole structures are regained in the $\kappa \gg 1$ limit

Revisiting the Ulysses electron data with a triple fit of velocity distributions

Given their uniqueness, the Ulysses data can still provide us with valuable new clues about the properties of plasma populations in the solar wind, and, especially, about their variations with heliographic coordinates. We revisit the electron data reported by by the SWOOPS instrument on-board of the Ulysses spacecraft between 1990 to early 2008. These observations reveal velocity distributions out of thermal equilibrium, with anisotropies (e.g., parallel drifts or/and different temperatures, parallel and perpendicular to the background magnetic field), and quasi-thermal and suprathermal populations with different properties. We apply a 2D nonlinear least square fitting procedure, using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, to simultaneously fit the velocity electron data (up to a few keV) with a triple model combining three distinct populations: the more central quasi-thermal core and suprathermal halo, and a second suprathermal population consisting mainly of the electron strahl (or beaming population with a major field-aligned drift). The recently introduced $\kappa$-cookbook is used to describe each component with the following anisotropic distribution functions (recipes): Maxwellian, regularized kappa-, and generalized kappa-distributions. The temperature anisotropy quantified by the best fits is considered as a case study of the main parameters characterizing electron populations. By comparison to the core, both suprathermal populations exhibit higher temperature anisotropies, which slightly increase with the energy of electrons.Comment: 11 pages, 11 Figure

Linear Dispersion Theory of Parallel Electromagnetic Modes for Regularized Kappa-Distributions

The velocity particle distributions measured in-situ in space plasmas deviate from Maxwellian (thermal) equilibrium, showing enhanced suprathermal tails which are well described by the standard Kappa-distribution (SKD). Despite its successful application, the SKD is frequently disputed due to a series of unphysical implications like diverging velocity moments, preventing a macroscopic description of the plasma. The regularized Kappa-distribution (RKD) has been introduced to overcome these limitations, but the dispersion properties of RKD-plasmas are not explored yet. In the present paper we compute the wavenumber dispersion of the frequency and damping or growth rates for the electromagnetic modes in plasmas characterized by the RKD. This task is accomplished by using the grid-based kinetic dispersion solver LEOPARD developed for arbitrary gyrotropic distributions [P. Astfalk and F. Jenko, J. Geophys. Res. 122, 89 (2017)]. By reproducing previous results obtained for the SKD and Maxwellian, we validate the functionality of the code. Furthermore, we apply the isotropic as well as the anisotropic RKDs to investigate stable electromagnetic electron-cyclotron (EMEC) and ion-cyclotron (EMIC) modes as well as temperature-anisotropy-driven instabilities, both for the case $T_\perp / T_\parallel > 1$ (EMEC and EMIC instabilities) and for the case $T_\perp / T_\parallel < 1$ (proton and electron firehose instabilities), where $\parallel$ and $\perp$ denote directions parallel and perpendicular to the local time-averaged magnetic field. Provided that the cutoff parameter $\alpha$ is small enough, the results show that the RKDs reproduce the dispersion curves of the SKD plasmas at both qualitative and quantitative levels. For higher values, however, physically significant deviation occurs.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, 3 table