Electron and Ion Heating By Whistler Turbulence: Three-Dimensional Particle-in-Cell Simulations

Randall Scott Hughes, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, Stephen Peter Gary, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States and Joseph Wang, University of Southern California, Department of Astronautical Engineering, Los Angeles, United States
Abstract:
Three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of whistler turbulence in a magnetized, homogeneous, collisionless plasma have been carried out to study the consequent heating of both electrons and ions. An initial relatively isotropic spectrum of long-wavelength whistler mode fluctuations is imposed upon the system. The simulations follow the temporal evolution of the field fluctuations as they decay via a forward cascade into a broadband, turbulent spectrum at shorter wavelengths with an anisotropy in the sense of stronger fluctuation energy at k||, where the subscripts denote directions relative to the background magnetic field. As in previous whistler turbulence PIC simulations, electrons are heated with T||e >> Tperp,e.  Consistent with the results of Saito and Nariyuki (2014) the ions are also heated, although more weakly than the electrons and with Tperp,i >> T||i. Larger simulation box sizes enable longer wavelength turbulence and lead to comparatively greater ion heating. Ion heating as a function of βe and initial fluctuation amplitudes is also studied.

 Saito, S., and Y. Nariyuki (2014), Perpendicular Ion Acceleration in Whistler Turbulence, Phys. Plasmas, 21, 042303.

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