Turbulent Thermal Equilibration of Collisionless Magnetospheric Plasmas

Abstract

How thermal equilibrium is determined in a weakly collisional plasma is a fundamental question in plasma physics. This letter shows that the turbulence driven by the magnetic curvature and density gradient tends to equilibrate the temperature between species without collisions in a magnetospheric plasma. The classical stability analysis in terms of energetic consideration reveals the interchangeable roles of electrons and ions for destabilization depending on their temperatures. Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations confirm that the higher-temperature destabilizing species gives free energy to heat the other species to achieve the equal temperature state.