Tangential deflection and formation of counterstreaming flows at the impact of a plasma jet on a tangential discontinuity

Abstract

In this letter we report three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of the interaction between a nonpenetrable magnetosheath jet and the magnetopause, for northward interplanetary magnetic field. The magnetopause is modeled as a tangential discontinuity with no magnetic shear. We investigate the deflection of the plasma jet in the direction tangential to the magnetopause. We find that as the frontal edge of the jet interacts with the magnetopause, the electrons and ions are scattered in opposite directions, tangential to the magnetopause, by the energy-dependent gradient-B drift. This effect is more effective on the nonthermal particles that tend to accumulate at the two sides of the jet and sustain a polarization electric field in the direction normal to the discontinuity surface. The electric drift of the bulk of particles under the action of this polarization electric field explains the deflection and counterstreaming at the impact of the plasma jet on the tangential discontinuity.