Kinetic Flux Rope Solutions with Non-Boltzmann Electron and Ion Distributions

Abstract:

Exact nonlinear solutions of the Vlasov-Poisson- Amp\`{e}re system of equations, known as two-dimensional Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal (BGK) modes, and having magnetic field structures in the form of small-scale kinetic flux ropes were found previously with non-Boltzmann electron distribution only [Ng, Phys. Plasmas {\bf 27}, 022301 (2020)]. In this work, we generalize this theory by explicitly constructing solutions with non-Boltzmann distribution functions for both electrons and ions with finite electron/ion temperature ratios. This shows that solutions generally exist even with more complicated distributions for both electrons and ions. Solutions for either positive or negative electric potential with more complicated profiles are constructed, demonstrating a large range of possibilities for kinetic flux rope solutions.

This work is partially supported by a National Science Foundation Grant PHY- 2010617.