Ultrafast Wave-Particle Energy Transfer in the Collapse of Standing Whistler Waves

TL;DR

This paper uncovers a rapid ion-heating mechanism in standing whistler waves, showing ions can gain significant energy directly from electromagnetic waves in a timescale comparable to wave oscillations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel energy transfer process where ions are efficiently heated by standing whistler waves, a phenomenon not previously understood.

Findings

Ions acquire large energy directly from standing whistler waves.

Ion temperature increases proportionally to the square of wave amplitude.

Ion temperature surpasses electron temperature in various conditions.

Abstract

Efficient energy transfer from electromagnetic waves to ions has been demanded to control laboratory plasmas for various applications and could be useful to understand the nature of space and astrophysical plasmas. However, there exists a severe unsolved problem that most of the wave energy is converted quickly to electrons, but not to ions. Here, an energy conversion process to ions in overdense plasmas associated with whistler waves is investigated by numerical simulations and theoretical model. Whistler waves propagating along a magnetic field in space and laboratories often form the standing waves by the collision of counter-propagating waves or through the reflection. We find that ions in the standing whistler waves acquire a large amount of energy directly from the waves in a short timescale comparable to the wave oscillation period. Thermalized ion temperature increases in proportion to the square of the wave amplitude and becomes much higher than the electron temperature in a wide range of wave-plasma conditions. This efficient ion-heating mechanism applies to various plasma phenomena in space physics and fusion energy sciences.