Self-organization of earth's inner magnetospheric multi-ion plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates how multi-ion plasma self-organizes into complex quadruple Beltrami structures within Earth's inner magnetosphere, revealing impacts on magnetic properties and plasma heating.

Contribution

It introduces a new theoretical model describing self-organization of multi-ion plasma into quadruple Beltrami states with implications for Earth's magnetospheric dynamics.

Findings

Identification of quadruple Beltrami field structures in multi-ion plasma

Influence of ion species densities on vortex characteristics

Potential effects on Earth's magnetospheric magnetic and thermal behavior

Abstract

The self-organization of a magnetized multi-ion plasma, composed of inertialess electrons and inertial H+, He+, and O+ ions, leads to the formation of quadruple Beltrami (QB) field structures. The QB self-organized state is a linear combination of four single Beltrami fields, and it is a non-force-free state that shows strong magnetofluid coupling. Moreover, the QB state is characterized by four relaxed state structures of different length scales. The investigation reveals that the generalized helicities of plasma species and the densities of ion species have a significant impact on the characteristics of the self-organized vortices in the QB state. The study also highlights the potential consequences of QB field structures on earth's inner magnetosphere, including diamagnetic and paramagnetic trends as well as heating effects resulting from disparate length scales.