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Register a new userGeneration of Electrojets in Weakly Ionized Plasmas through a Collisional Dynamo
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Intense electric currents called electrojets occur in weakly ionized magnetized plasmas. An example occurs in the Earths ionosphere near the magnetic equator where neutral winds drive the plasma across the geomagnetic field. Similar processes take place in the Solar chromosphere and MHD generators. This letter argues that not all convective neutral flows generate electrojets and it introduces the corresponding universal criterion for electrojet formation, $ ablatimes (vec{U}timesvec{B}) eqpartialvec{B}/partial t$, where $vec{U}$ is the neutral flow velocity, $vec{B}$ is the magnetic field, and $t$ is time. This criterion does not depend on the conductivity tensor, $hat{sigma}$. For many systems, the displacement current, $partialvec{B}/partial t$, is negligible, making the criterion even simpler. This theory also shows that the neutral-dynamo driver that generates electrojets plays the same role as the DC electric current plays for the generation of the magnetic field in the Biot-Savart law.
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We perform fully kinetic simulations of flows known to produce dynamo in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), considering scenarios with low Reynolds number and high magnetic Prandtl number, relevant for galaxy cluster scale fluctuation dynamos. We find that Landau damping on the electrons leads to a rapid decay of magnetic perturbations, impeding the dynamo. This collisionless damping process operates on spatial scales where electrons are nonmagnetized, reducing the range of scales where the magnetic field grows in high magnetic Prandtl number fluctuation dynamos. When electrons are not magnetized down to the resistive scale, the magnetic energy spectrum is expected to be limited by the scale corresponding to magnetic Landau damping or, if smaller, the electron gyroradius scale, instead of the resistive scale. In simulations we thus observe decaying magnetic fields where resistive MHD would predict a dynamo.
The physical foundations of the dissipation of energy and the associated heating in weakly collisional plasmas are poorly understood. Here, we compare and contrast several measures that have been used to characterize energy dissipation and kinetic-scale conversion in plasmas by means of a suite of kinetic numerical simulations describing both magnetic reconnection and decaying plasma turbulence. We adopt three different numerical codes that can also include interparticle collisions: the fully kinetic particle-in-cell VPIC, the fully kinetic continuum Gkeyll, and the Eulerian Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell (HVM) code. We differentiate between (i) four energy-based parameters, whose definition is related to energy transfer in a fluid description of a plasma, and (ii) four distribution function-based parameters, requiring knowledge of the particle velocity distribution function. There is an overall agreement between the dissipation measures obtained in the PIC and continuum reconnection simulations, with slight differences due to the presence/absence of secondary islands in the two simulations. There are also many qualitative similarities between the signatures in the reconnection simulations and the self-consistent current sheets that form in turbulence, although the latter exhibits significant variations compared to the reconnection results. All the parameters confirm that dissipation occurs close to regions of intense magnetic stresses, thus exhibiting local correlation. The distribution function-based measures show a broader width compared to energy-based proxies, suggesting that energy transfer is co-localized at coherent structures, but can affect the particle distribution function in wider regions. The effect of interparticle collisions on these parameters is finally discussed.
The turbulent amplification of cosmic magnetic fields depends upon the material properties of the host plasma. In many hot, dilute astrophysical systems, such as the intracluster medium (ICM) of galaxy clusters, the rarity of particle--particle collisions allows departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium. These departures exert anisotropic viscous stresses on the plasma motions that inhibit their ability to stretch magnetic-field lines. We present a numerical study of the fluctuation dynamo in a weakly collisional plasma using magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations endowed with a field-parallel viscous (Braginskii) stress. When the stress is limited to values consistent with a pressure anisotropy regulated by firehose and mirror instabilities, the Braginskii-MHD dynamo largely resembles its MHD counterpart. If instead the parallel viscous stress is left unabated -- a situation relevant to recent kinetic simulations of the fluctuation dynamo and to the early stages of the dynamo in a magnetized ICM -- the dynamo changes its character, amplifying the magnetic field while exhibiting many characteristics of the saturated state of the large-Prandtl-number (${rm Pm}gtrsim{1}$) MHD dynamo. We construct an analytic model for the Braginskii-MHD dynamo in this regime, which successfully matches magnetic-energy spectra. A prediction of this model, confirmed by our simulations, is that a Braginskii-MHD plasma without pressure-anisotropy limiters will not support a dynamo if the ratio of perpendicular and parallel viscosities is too small. This ratio reflects the relative allowed rates of field-line stretching and mixing, the latter of which promotes resistive dissipation of the magnetic field. In all cases that do exhibit a dynamo, the generated magnetic field is organized into folds that persist into the saturated state and bias the chaotic flow to acquire a scale-dependent spectral anisotropy.
Weakly collisional Ar-O2 electronegative plasmas are investigated in a dc multidipole chamber. An electronegative core and an electropositive halo are observed. The density ratio of negative ions to electrons ({alpha}) in the nondrifting bulk is found to be 0.43. The profile of {alpha} is found using both the phase velocity of ion acoustic waves and the drift velocity of positive ions determined by laser induced fluorescence. The experiment shows that negative ions are in Boltzmann equilibrium with a temperature of 0.06 pm 0.02 eV. Double layers are not found separating the electronegative core and the electropositive halo.
Kinetic simulations based on the Eulerian Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell (HVM) formalism permit the examination of plasma turbulence with useful resolution of the proton velocity distribution function (VDF). The HVM model is employed here to study the balance of energy, focusing on channels of conversion that lead to proton kinetic effects, including growth of internal energy and temperature anisotropies. We show that this Eulerian simulation approach, which is almost noise-free, is able to provide an accurate energy balance for protons. The results demonstrate explicitly that the recovered temperature growth is directly related to the role of the pressure-strain interaction. Furthermore, analysis of local spatial correlations indicates that the pressure-strain interaction is qualitatively associated with strong-current, high-vorticity structures, although other local terms -- such as the heat flux -- weaken the correlation. These numerical capabilities based on the Eulerian approach will enable deeper study of transfer and conversion channels in weakly collisional Vlasov plasmas.
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