Prevalence of non-standard collapsing of strong Langmuir turbulence in solar corona plasmas

TL;DR

This study uses kinetic simulations to reveal that strong Langmuir turbulence in the solar corona often deviates from classical models, with most wave packets affected by neighbors and losing energy, impacting plasma behavior.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed kinetic simulation showing non-standard Langmuir collapse features in solar corona plasmas, challenging existing theoretical predictions.

Findings

80% of wave packets are influenced by neighbors during collapse

70% of packet energy escapes due to shallow cavities

Non-standard collapse may significantly affect coronal plasma dynamics

Abstract

We present a fully-kinetic simulation of the full life cycle of strong Langmuir turbulence (SLT) excited by electron beams that are accelerated under the solar corona conditions. We find that (1) most packets ($\sim$80%) are affected by their neighbors during their collapse, as a result, their spatial scale variations present non-standard evolutionary features, i.e., deviating away from what was predicted by the Zakharov model; (2) the collapsing cavity is too shallow to trap the wave packet due to the growth of the Coulomb force, as a result a majority ($\sim$70%) of the packet energy runs away and a secondary localization may occur. The study indicates that the non-standard Langmuir collapse may play an important role in coronal plasmas interacting with an intense electron beam, that may be eventually confirmed by humanity's first mission to fly through the corona.