Parallel Electric Fields Associated with Double Layers in Kappa Distributed Space Plasmas

Saba Khalid; Muhammad Nouman Sarwar Qureshi; Umm e Hira; Shoaib Akhtar

Authors

Saba Khalid Department of Physics, GC University, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Muhammad Nouman Sarwar Qureshi Department of Physics, GC University, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Umm e Hira Department of Physics, GC University, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Shoaib Akhtar Department of Physics, GC University, Lahore 54000, Pakistan

Keywords:

Double layers, Kappa distribution, Electric field structures, Kinetic Alfven waves

Abstract

Parallel electric field structures associated with double layers (DLs) provide the best explanation for the physical mechanism underlying charged particle energization acceleration at sites of magnetic reconnection. In-situ measurements of reconnection sites by various satellites such as MMS, THEMIS, and FAST confirmed the connection of charged particle energization with the large parallel electric fields in the auroral regions, Earth's plasma sheet, and the separatrix region of the magnetosphere. We employed the fully nonlinear Sagdeev potential technique and multi-fluid theory for electron-ion plasma to find double-layer solutions and the accompanying electric field at the reported sites. Considering electrons to be kappa distributed, we have taken into account the ion inertial effect. Specifically, at non-Maxwellian effective temperature scales, parallel electric fields related to the Alfvénic double layer have been studied and compared with the observations. We have shown that the nonthermal parameter kappa and Alfvénic Mach number ????_A considerably alter the properties of DLs and the associated electric field of kinetic Alfvén waves.

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