Open AccessAlfvén wave heating of heavy ions in the expanding solar wind: Hybrid simulations
Author(s) -
Hellinger Petr,
Velli Marco,
Trávníček Pavel,
Gary S. Peter,
Goldstein Bruce E.,
Liewer Paulett C.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2005ja011244
Subject(s) - physics , ion , atomic physics , anisotropy , cyclotron , solar wind , scattering , population , oxygen , magnetic field , proton , cyclotron resonance , instability , plasma , nuclear physics , optics , demography , quantum mechanics , sociology , mechanics
We present hybrid expanding box simulations of the interaction of left‐handed Alfvén waves with protons, alpha particles, and a tenuous population of oxygen O 5+ . The Alfvén waves are initially nonresonant with the ions, and the expansion brings them to the cyclotron resonance with O 5+ ions, then with alpha particles, and finally with protons. The simulations show that O 5+ ions are efficiently heated in the directions perpendicular to the background magnetic field but are only slightly accelerated. Oxygen scattering has a finite time span and saturates mainly due to the marginal stabilization with respect to the oxygen cyclotron instability generated by the temperature anisotropy. During the scattering, oxygen ions are able to absorb only a limited amount of available fluctuating energy and, for the parameters used in the simulations, their presence has a minimum influence on alpha particles and protons.