Ingmar Sandberg

Linear theory of the mirror instability in non‐Maxwellian space plasmas

[1] A unified theory of the mirror instability in space plasmas is developed. In the standard quasi-hydrodynamic approach, the most general mirror-mode dispersion relation is derived and the growth rate of the mirror instability is obtained in terms of arbitrary electron and ion velocity distribution functions. Finite electron temperature effects and arbitrary electron temperature anisotropies are included. The new dispersion relation allows the treatment of more general space plasma equilibria such as the Dory-Guest-Harris (DGH) or Kennel-Ashour-Abdalla (KA) loss cone equilibria, as well as distributions with power law velocity dependence that are modeled by the family of κ-distributions. Under these conditions, we derive the general kinetic mirror instability growth rate including finite electron temperature effects. As for an example of equilibrium particle distribution, we analyze a large class of κ to suprathermal loss cone distributions in view of application to a variety of space plasmas like the solar wind, magnetosheath, ring current plasma, and the magnetospheres of other planets.

Large-scale flows and coherent structure phenomena in flute turbulence

The properties of zonal and streamer flows in the flute mode turbulence are investigated. The stability criteria and the frequency of these flows are determined in terms of the spectra of turbulent fluctuations. Furthermore, it is shown that zonal flows can undergo a further nonlinear evolution leading to the formation of long-lived coherent structures which consist of self-bound wave packets supporting stationary shear layers, and thus can be characterized as regions with a reduced level of anomalous transport.

Generation and saturation of large-scale flows in flute turbulence

The excitation and suppression of large-scale anisotropic modes during the temporal evolution of a magnetic-curvature-driven electrostatic flute instability are numerically investigated. The formation of streamerlike structures is attributed to the linear development of the instability while the subsequent excitation of the zonal modes is the result of the nonlinear coupling between linearly grown flute modes. When the amplitudes of the zonal modes become of the same order as that of the streamer modes, the flute instabilities get suppressed and poloidal (zonal) flows dominate. In the saturated state that follows, the dominant large-scale modes of the potential and the density are self-organized in different ways, depending on the value of the ion temperature.

Finite Larmor radius effects on the coupled trapped electron and ion temperature gradient modes

The properties of the coupled trapped electron and toroidal ion temperature gradient modes are investigated using the standard reactive fluid model and taking rigorously into account the effects attributed to the ion polarization drift and to the drifts associated with the lowest-order finite ion Larmor radius effects. In the flat density regime, where the coupling between the modes is relatively weak, the properties of the unstable modes are slightly modified through these effects. For the peak density regions, where the coupling of the modes is rather strong, these second-order drifts determine the spectra of the unstable modes near the marginal conditions.

Explicit threshold of the toroidal ion temperature gradient mode instability

The explicit stability threshold of the toroidal ion temperature gradient mode instability is analytically derived using the standard reactive fluid model. It is shown that in the peak density region, the threshold gets significantly smaller due to finite ion Larmor radius effects, and the marginal unstable modes acquire finite wavelengths.

Zonal flow in toroidal ion temperature gradient mode turbulence

The properties of zonal flows in the toroidal ion temperature gradient mode turbulence are investigated taking into account the polarization drift effects. The stability criterion and the characteristic oscillation frequency of the zonal flow are determined in terms of the spectra of turbulent fluctuations. The nonlinear evolution of zonal flows may lead to the formation of stationary long-lived coherent structures supporting stationary shear layers. These results indicate the existence of regions with reduced levels of anomalous transport, attributed to zonal flows generalizing previous findings regarding zonal flows in electron drift turbulence.