Kappa-tail technique: Modeling and application to Solar Energetic Particles observed by Parker Solar Probe

TL;DR

This paper introduces the kappa-tail fitting technique to analyze power-law tails in space plasma observations, linking them to kappa distributions and applying it to solar energetic particles observed by the Parker Solar Probe.

Contribution

The paper develops a mathematical formulation for the kappa-tail technique, proves its effectiveness for identifying kappa distributions, and validates it with pseudo-observations, then applies it to real SEP data.

Findings

SEP protons have temperatures around 1 MeV

SEP densities are approximately 5 x 10^-7 cm^-3

Technique effectively links observed spectra to plasma thermodynamics

Abstract

We develop the kappa-tail fitting technique, which analyzes observations of power-law tails of distributions and energy-flux spectra and connects them to theoretical modeling of kappa distributions, to determine the thermodynamics of the examined space plasma. In particular, we (i) construct the associated mathematical formulation, (ii) prove its decisive lead for determining whether the observed power-law is associated with kappa distributions; and (iii) provide a validation of the technique using pseudo-observations of typical input plasma parameters. Then, we apply this technique to a case-study by determining the thermodynamics of solar energetic particle (SEP) protons, for a SEP event observed on April 17, 2021, by the PSP/ISOIS instrument suite onboard PSP. The results show SEP temperatures and densities of the order of $\sim 1$ MeV and $ \sim 5 \cdot 10^{-7} $ cm$^{-3}$, respectively.