The Importance of Electron Landau Damping for the Dissipation of Turbulent Energy in Terrestrial Magnetosheath Plasma

TL;DR

This study uses MMS spacecraft data to show that electron Landau damping is a key mechanism for dissipating turbulent energy and heating plasma in Earth's magnetosheath, with most intervals exhibiting signatures consistent with kinetic theory.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive observational evidence that electron Landau damping significantly contributes to turbulence dissipation in Earth's magnetosheath.

Findings

95% of intervals show electron Landau damping signatures

75% of intervals have asymmetric wave energy flux signatures

Electron energization rates match turbulent cascade rates in about one third of intervals

Abstract

Heliospheric plasma turbulence plays a key role in transferring the energy of large-scale magnetic field and plasma flow fluctuations to smaller scales where the energy can be dissipated, ultimately leading to plasma heating. High-quality measurements of electromagnetic fields and electron velocity distributions by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission in Earth's magnetosheath present a unique opportunity to characterize plasma turbulence and to determine the mechanisms responsible for its dissipation. We apply the field-particle correlation technique to a set of twenty MMS magnetosheath intervals to identify the dissipation mechanism and quantify the dissipation rate. It is found that 95% of the intervals have velocity-space signatures of electron Landau damping that are quantitatively consistent with linear kinetic theory for the collisionless damping of kinetic Alfv\'en waves. About 75% of the intervals contain asymmetric signatures, indicating a local imbalance of kinetic Alfv\'en wave energy flux in one direction along the magnetic field than the other. About one third of the intervals have an electron energization rate with the same order-of-magnitude as the estimated turbulent cascade rate, suggesting that electron Landau damping plays a significant, and sometimes dominant, role in the dissipation of the turbulent energy in these magnetosheath intervals.