Electrons under the dominant action of shock-electric fields

TL;DR

This paper models the electron dynamics in a shock transition layer, revealing that electrons can dominate downstream plasma pressure due to electric field effects in a three-phase process.

Contribution

It introduces a three-phase model of shock transition, emphasizing the dominant role of electric fields on electrons, a novel perspective in shock physics.

Findings

Electrons are accelerated to high velocities by electric fields in the transition.

Electrons can store about 75% of the upstream ion kinetic energy.

Electrons may dominate downstream plasma pressure.

Abstract

We consider a fast magnetosonic multifluid shock as a representation of the solar-wind termination shock. We assume the action of the transition happens in a three-step process: In the first step, the upstream supersonic solar-wind plasma is subject to a strong electric field that flashes up on a small distance scale $\Delta z\simeq U_1/ \Omega _{\mathrm e}$ (first part of the transition layer), where $\Omega_{\mathrm e}$ is the electron gyro-frequency and $U_1$ is the upstream speed. This electric field both decelerates the supersonic ion flow and accelerates the electrons up to high velocities. In this part of the transition region, the electric forces connected with the deceleration of the ion flow strongly dominate over the Lorentz forces. We, therefore, call this part the demagnetization region. In the second phase, Lorentz forces due to convected magnetic fields compete with the electric field, and the highly anisotropic and energetic electron distribution function is converted into a shell distribution with energetic shell electrons storing about 3/4 of the upstream ion kinetic energy. In the third phase, the plasma particles thermalize due to the relaxation of free energy by plasma instabilities. The first part of the transition region opens up a new thermodynamic degree of freedom never before taken into account for the electrons, since the electrons are usually considered to be enslaved to follow the behavior of the protons in all velocity moments like density, bulk velocity, and temperature. We show that electrons may be the downstream plasma fluid that dominates the downstream plasma pressure.