The role of core and strahlo electrons properties on the whistler heat-flux instability thresholds in the solar wind

TL;DR

This study investigates how core and strahlo electron properties influence the whistler heat-flux instability thresholds in the solar wind, using a new core-strahlo model and linear kinetic theory to better understand wave-particle interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel core-strahlo model to analyze electron velocity distributions and their impact on whistler heat-flux instability thresholds in the solar wind.

Findings

The core-strahlo model effectively reproduces solar wind eVDF features.

Stability thresholds depend on electron beta and skewness parameter.

Results can be compared with observational data for validation.

Abstract

There is wide observational evidence that electron velocity distribution functions (eVDF) observed in the solar wind generally present enhanced tails and field-aligned skewness. These properties may induce the excitation of electromagnetic perturbations through the whistler heat-flux instability (WHFI), that may contribute to a non-collisional regulation of the electron heat-flux values observed in the solar wind via wave-particle interactions. Recently, a new way to model the solar wind eVDF has been proposed: the core-strahlo model. This representation consist in a bi-Maxwellian core plus a Skew-Kappa distribution, representing the halo and strahl electrons as a single skewed distribution. The core-strahlo model is able to reproduce the main features of the eVDF in the solar wind (thermal core, enhanced tails, and skewness), with the advantage that the asymmetry is controlled by only one parameter. In this work we use linear kinetic theory to analyze the effect of solar wind electrons described by the core-strahlo model, over the excitation of the parallel propagating WHFI. We use parameters relevant to the solar wind and focus our attention on the effect on the linear stability introduced by different values of the core-to-strahlo density and temperature ratios, which are known to vary throughout the Heliosphere. We also obtain the stability threshold for this instability as a function of the electron beta and the skewness parameter, which is a better indicator of instability than the heat-flux macroscopic moment, and present a threshold conditions for the instability that can be compared with observational data.