Direct measurement of electron sloshing of an inertial Alfvén wave

J. W.R. Schroeder; F. Skiff; C. A. Kletzing; G. G. Howes; T. A. Carter; S. Dorfman

doi:10.1002/2016GL068865

Direct measurement of electron sloshing of an inertial Alfvén wave

J. W.R. Schroeder, F. Skiff, C. A. Kletzing, G. G. Howes, T. A. Carter, S. Dorfman

Fusion Energy Division

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10 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report laboratory measurements of the parallel current carried by suprathermal electrons associated with inertial Alfvén wave excitation in the laboratory. The experiments presented here use a novel wave absorption diagnostic that measures the suprathermal tails of the electron distribution parallel to the mean magnetic field. The diagnostic is used to probe the electron distribution as an inertial Alfvén wave propagates along the mean magnetic field. These results identify, for the first time, the periodic motion of suprathermal electrons participating in the inertial Alfvén wave itself, in agreement with predictions from linear kinetic theory.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	4701-4707
Number of pages	7
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	43
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068865
State	Published - 2016

Funding

Supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship under grant 1048957, NSF grants ATM 03-17310 and PHY-10033446, NSF CAREER award AGS-1054061, DOE grant DE-FG02-06ER54890, and NASA grant NNX10AC91G. The experiment presented here was conducted at the Basic Plasma Science Facility, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. The data used are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Keywords

Alfvén waves
Large Plasma Device
auroral phenomena
magnetosphere
wave-particle interactions

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10.1002/2016GL068865

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title = "Direct measurement of electron sloshing of an inertial Alfv{\'e}n wave",

abstract = "We report laboratory measurements of the parallel current carried by suprathermal electrons associated with inertial Alfv{\'e}n wave excitation in the laboratory. The experiments presented here use a novel wave absorption diagnostic that measures the suprathermal tails of the electron distribution parallel to the mean magnetic field. The diagnostic is used to probe the electron distribution as an inertial Alfv{\'e}n wave propagates along the mean magnetic field. These results identify, for the first time, the periodic motion of suprathermal electrons participating in the inertial Alfv{\'e}n wave itself, in agreement with predictions from linear kinetic theory.",

keywords = "Alfv{\'e}n waves, Large Plasma Device, auroral phenomena, magnetosphere, wave-particle interactions",

author = "Schroeder, \{J. W.R.\} and F. Skiff and Kletzing, \{C. A.\} and Howes, \{G. G.\} and Carter, \{T. A.\} and S. Dorfman",

year = "2016",

doi = "10.1002/2016GL068865",

language = "English",

volume = "43",

pages = "4701--4707",

journal = "Geophysical Research Letters",

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T1 - Direct measurement of electron sloshing of an inertial Alfvén wave

AU - Schroeder, J. W.R.

AU - Skiff, F.

AU - Kletzing, C. A.

AU - Howes, G. G.

AU - Carter, T. A.

AU - Dorfman, S.

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - We report laboratory measurements of the parallel current carried by suprathermal electrons associated with inertial Alfvén wave excitation in the laboratory. The experiments presented here use a novel wave absorption diagnostic that measures the suprathermal tails of the electron distribution parallel to the mean magnetic field. The diagnostic is used to probe the electron distribution as an inertial Alfvén wave propagates along the mean magnetic field. These results identify, for the first time, the periodic motion of suprathermal electrons participating in the inertial Alfvén wave itself, in agreement with predictions from linear kinetic theory.

AB - We report laboratory measurements of the parallel current carried by suprathermal electrons associated with inertial Alfvén wave excitation in the laboratory. The experiments presented here use a novel wave absorption diagnostic that measures the suprathermal tails of the electron distribution parallel to the mean magnetic field. The diagnostic is used to probe the electron distribution as an inertial Alfvén wave propagates along the mean magnetic field. These results identify, for the first time, the periodic motion of suprathermal electrons participating in the inertial Alfvén wave itself, in agreement with predictions from linear kinetic theory.

KW - Alfvén waves

KW - Large Plasma Device

KW - auroral phenomena

KW - magnetosphere

KW - wave-particle interactions

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84969920101

U2 - 10.1002/2016GL068865

DO - 10.1002/2016GL068865

M3 - Article

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SN - 0094-8276

VL - 43

SP - 4701

EP - 4707

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

IS - 10

ER -

Direct measurement of electron sloshing of an inertial Alfvén wave

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