Acceleration Processes in the Solar Wind

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

A new theoretical model of resonant cyclotron interaction of ions with Alfven waves in the divergent solar wind plasma will be constructed. It is based on a scale separation between the characteristic scales of wave-particle interaction (microscopic scale) and the scales of nonhomogeneity (macroscopic scale). The latter is five to six orders of magnitude larger than the former. The overarching goal of the study is to explain recent observations of the solar wind which have revealed that (1) the bulk speed of the particles considerably exceeds that of the protons, (2) the differential motion of the ions is aligned along the magnetic field, and (3) the differential speed follows the local Alfven speed.