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Modeling Space Plasma Dynamics with Anisotropic Kappa Distributions

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Multi-scale Dynamical Processes in Space and Astrophysical Plasmas

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings ((ASSSP,volume 33))

Abstract

Space plasmas are collisionpoor and kinetic effects prevail leading to wave fluctuations, which transfer the energy to small scales: wave-particle interactions replace collisions and enhance dispersive effects heating particles and producing suprathermal populations observed at any heliospheric distance in the solar wind. At large distances collisions are not efficient, and the selfgenerated instabilities constrain the solar wind anisotropy including the thermal core and the suprathermal components. The generalized power-laws of Kappa-type are the best fitting model for the observed distributions of particles, and a convenient mathematical tool for modeling their dynamics. But the anisotropic Kappa models are not correlated with the observations leading, in general, to inconsistent effects. This review work aims to reconcile some of the existing Kappa models with the observations.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Research Foundation Flanders (project G.0729.11), the KU Leuven (project GOA/2009-009, grant F/07/061), ESA Prodex 10 (project C 90205) and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), grant Schl 201/21-1. Financial support by the European Commission through the SOLAIRE Network (MTRN-CT-2006-035484), and the Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) the grant agreement SWIFF (project nr. 2633430, www.swiff.eu) is gratefully acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Lehrstuhl IV: Weltraum- und Astrophysik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, D-44780, Bochum, Germany

    M. Lazar & R. Schlickeiser

  2. Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Space Physics, av. circulaire 3, 1180, Brussels, Belgium

    V. Pierrard

  3. Centre for Plasma Astrophysics, Celestijnenlaan 200B, 3001, Leuven, Belgium

    S. Poedts

Authors
  1. M. Lazar
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  2. V. Pierrard
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  3. S. Poedts
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  4. R. Schlickeiser
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Lazar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Inst. of Astro- and Particle Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria

    Manfred P. Leubner

  2. , Inst. of Astro- and Particle Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria

    Zoltán Vörös

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Lazar, M., Pierrard, V., Poedts, S., Schlickeiser, R. (2012). Modeling Space Plasma Dynamics with Anisotropic Kappa Distributions. In: Leubner, M., Vörös, Z. (eds) Multi-scale Dynamical Processes in Space and Astrophysical Plasmas. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, vol 33. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30442-2_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30442-2_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-30441-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-30442-2

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