Common Origin of Kinetic Scale Turbulence and the Electron Halo in the Solar Wind -- Connection to Nanoflares

Abstract

We summarize our recent studies on the origin of solar wind kinetic scale turbulence and electron halo in the electron velocity distribution function. Increasing observations of nanoflares and microscopic type III radio bursts strongly suggest that nanoflares and accelerated electron beams are common in the corona. Based on particle-in-cell simulations, we show that both the core-halo feature and kinetic scale turbulence observed in the solar wind can be produced by the nonlinear evolution of electron two-stream instability driven by nanoflare accelerated electron beams. The energy exchange between waves and particles reaches equilibrium in the inner corona and the key features of the turbulence and velocity distribution are preserved as the solar wind escapes into interplanetary space along open magnetic field lines. Observational tests of the model and future theoretical work are discussed.