Expansion of Hot Plasma into Cold Plasma

TL;DR

This study compares hot plasma confinement in cold plasma for kappa and Maxwellian electron distributions using particle-in-cell simulations, revealing extended electron tails, multiple double layers, and proton acceleration phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed simulation analysis of how kappa electron distributions affect plasma confinement and electron escape compared to Maxwellian distributions.

Findings

Kappa distribution leads to multiple double layers in the transition region.

Extended electron tails allow more hot electrons to escape into cold plasma.

Proton acceleration occurs during the formation of double layers and turbulence.

Abstract

The X-ray emission of coronal flare sources can be explained considering the kappa electron distribution. Motivated by this fact, we study the problem of how hot plasma with the kappa distribution of electrons is confined in these sources. For comparison, we analyze the same problem but with the Maxwellian distribution. We use a 3-D particle-in-cell code, which is large in one direction and thus effectively only one-dimensional, but describing all electromagnetic effects. In the case with the Maxwellian distribution, and in agreement with the previous studies, we show a formation of the double layer at the hot-cold transition region that suppresses the flux of hot electrons from hot plasma into the cold one. In the case with the kappa distribution, contrary to the Maxwellian case, we found that there are several fronts with the double layers in the hot-cold transition region. It is caused by a more extended tail in the kappa case than in the Maxwellian one. The electrons from the extended tail freely escape from the hot plasma into a cold one. They form a beam which generates the return current and also Langmuir turbulence, where at some locations Langmuir waves are accumulated. At these locations owing to the ponderomotive force, Langmuir waves generate density depressions, where the double layers with the thermal fronts, suppressing the hot electron flux, are formed. We also show how protons are accelerated in these processes. Finally, we compared the kappa and Maxwellian cases and discussed how these processes could be observed.