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Generation of electrostatic waves as a consequence of chaotic ion acceleration in the neutral sheet
Author(s) -
Burinskaya T.,
Schriver D.,
AshourAbdalla M.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/94gl01970
Subject(s) - physics , ion , flattening , instability , acceleration , distribution function , atomic physics , classical mechanics , computational physics , mechanics , quantum mechanics , astronomy
The stability of ion distributions with velocity space holes caused by chaotic ion acceleration in the vicinity of the field reversal region in the Earth's magnetotail is investigated. It is shown that such distributions are unstable to electrostatic waves with wave vector directed along the Sun‐Earth line. The solution of the quasi‐linear equation shows that the saturation of the instability occurs due to velocity space trapping of the low‐energy background ions and results in a flattening of the reduced ion distribution function in the region of the original velocity space hole. The energy level of the excited waves in the vicinity of the Earth's midplane is estimated as a function of the initial size of the empty velocity space region.