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Cold ions in the hot plasma sheet of Earth's magnetotail

机译:地球磁尾热等离子体片中的冷离子

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Most visible matter in the Universe exists as plasma. How this plasma is heated, and especially how the initial non-equilibrium plasma distributions relax to thermal equilibrium (as predicted by Maxwell-Boltzman statistics), is a fundamental question in studies of astrophysical(1-3) and laboratory plasmas(4,5). Astrophysical plasmas are often so tenuous that binary collisions(2,3) can be ignored, and it is not clear how thermal equilibrium develops for these 'collisionless' plasmas. One example of a collisionless plasma is the Earth's plasma sheet(6), where thermalized hot plasma with ion temperatures of about 5 x 10(7) K has been observed(7). Here we report direct observations of a plasma distribution function during a solar eclipse, revealing cold ions in the Earth's plasma sheet in coexistence with thermalized hot ions. This cold component cannot be detected by plasma sensors on satellites that are positively charged in sunlight, but our observations in the Earth's shadow show that the density of the cold ions is comparable to that of hot ions. This high density is difficult to explain within existing theories(8-10), as it requires a mechanism that permits half of the source plasma to remain cold upon entry into the hot turbulent plasma sheet. [References: 16]
机译:宇宙中最可见的物质以等离子体的形式存在。该等离子体如何加热,尤其是初始非平衡等离子体分布如何松弛到热平衡(如Maxwell-Boltzman统计所预测),是天体物理学(1-3)和实验室等离子体(4,5)研究中的基本问题)。天体物理学的等离子体通常如此微弱,以至于二元碰撞(2,3)可以忽略不计,而且尚不清楚这些“无碰撞”等离子体如何形成热平衡。无碰撞等离子体的一个例子是地球的等离子体片(6),其中已观察到离子温度约为5 x 10(7)K的热等离子体。(7)。在这里,我们报告对日食期间等离子体分布函数的直接观察,揭示了地球等离子体薄层中的冷离子与热离子共存。这种冷成分无法通过在阳光下带正电的卫星上的等离子传感器检测到,但是我们在地球阴影中的观察表明,冷离子的密度与热离子的密度相当。在现有的理论中很难解释这种高密度(8-10),因为它需要一种机制,该机制允许一半的源等离子体在进入热湍流等离子体片后保持冷态。 [参考:16]

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