3D cylindrical BGK model of electron phase-space holes with finite velocity and polarization drift

Gaëtan Gauthier (1) , Thomas Chust (1) , Olivier Le Contel (1) , Philippe Savoini (1)

1 LPP - Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas

Nonlinear kinetic structures, called electron phase-space holes (EHs), are regularly observed in space and experimental magnetized plasmas. The existence of EHs is conditioned and varies according to the ambient magnetic field and the parameters of the electron beam(s) that may generate them. The objective of this paper is to extend the 3D Bernstein–Greene–Kruskal model with cylindrical geometry developed by L.-J. Chen et al. [“Bernstein–Greene–Kruskal solitary waves in three-dimensional magnetized plasma,” Phys. Rev. E 69, 055401 (2004)] and L.-J. Chen et al., [“On the width-amplitude inequality of electron phase space holes,” J. Geophys. Res. 110, A09211 (2005)] to include simultaneously finite effects due to (i) the strength of the ambient magnetic field B0, by modifying the Poisson equation with a term derived from the electron polarization current, and (ii) the drift velocity ue of the background plasma electrons with respect to the EH, by considering velocity-shifted Maxwellian distributions for the boundary conditions. This allows us to more realistically determine the distributions of trapped and passing particles forming the EHs, as well as the width-amplitude relationships for their existence.

Keywords: Magnetospheric dynamics; Partial differential equations; Polarization; Cyclotrons; Vlasov equation; Plasma dynamics; Plasma properties and parameters; Plasma waves; Plasma acceleration; Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution

Domains: Plasma Physics [physics.plasm-ph]; Mathematical Physics [math-ph]; Space Physics [physics.space-ph]

Gaëtan Gauthier, Thomas Chust, Olivier Le Contel, Philippe Savoini. 3D cylindrical BGK model of electron phase-space holes with finite velocity and polarization drift. Physics of Plasmas, 2024, 31 (3), pp.032306. ⟨10.1063/5.0181180⟩. ⟨hal-04502784⟩