Firehose constraints for the solar wind suprathermal electrons

TL;DR

This paper investigates how suprathermal electrons in the solar wind are constrained by the firehose instability, deriving new theoretical thresholds that align with observational limits on temperature anisotropy.

Contribution

It develops a first-order theory for firehose instability specific to suprathermal electrons, revealing regimes controlled by these particles and their role in anisotropy relaxation.

Findings

Suprathermal electrons significantly stimulate the firehose instability.

Thresholds approach observed limits of temperature anisotropy.

New regimes of instability are identified for suprathermal populations.

Abstract

The indefinite increase of temperature predicted by the solar wind expansion in the direction parallel to the interplanetary magnetic field is already notorious for not being confirmed by the observations. In hot and dilute plasmas from space particle-particle collisions are not efficient in constraining large deviations from isotropy, but the resulting firehose instability provides in this case plausible limitations for the temperature anisotropy of the thermal (core) populations of both the electron and proton species. The present paper takes into discussion the suprathermal (halo) electrons, which are ubiquitous in the solar wind. Less dense but hotter than the core, suprathermals may be highly anisotropic and susceptible to the firehose instability. The main features of the instability are here derived from a first-order theory for conditions specific to the suprathermal electrons in the solar wind and terrestrial magnetospheres. Unveiled here, new regimes of the electron firehose instability may be exclusively controlled by the suprathermals. The instability is found to be systematically stimulated by the suprathermal electrons, with thresholds that approach the limits of the temperature anisotropy reported by the observations. These results represent new and valuable evidences for the implication of the firehose instability in the relaxation of the temperature anisotropy in space plasmas.