Anomalous Conductivity and Anisotropic Transport of Nonrelativistic Electrons in Plasma with Magnetostatic Weibel-Generated Turbulence

TL;DR

This study investigates how nonrelativistic electrons diffuse and conduct in collisionless plasma with Weibel-generated turbulence, revealing dependencies on plasma parameters and implications for coronal plasma behavior.

Contribution

It provides new quantitative analysis of electron transport properties in turbulent plasma using a novel Boris algorithm-based simulation approach.

Findings

Electron diffusion and mobility depend strongly on temperature, magnetic field, and turbulence spectrum.

Anomalous resistivity can dominate over collisional resistivity in coronal plasma.

Results suggest mechanisms for current redistribution in magnetic loops and reconnection regions.

Abstract

The anisotropic diffusion of electrons with various rigidity and the anomalous conductivity of a collisionless plasma in the presence of Weibel-generated quasi-static turbulent and uniform external magnetic fields are examined. Using an original code based on the Boris algorithm, the electron diffusion coefficients and the longitudinal, transverse, and Hall mobility factors are determined for a representative set of plasma parameters. It is shown that these values and their anisotropy depend strongly on the electron temperature, external magnetic field, average level of magnetic turbulence, and its spectrum. The physical origin and expected limits of such dependencies are indicated. Applications of the results are discussed in the case of coronal plasma, where the anomalous resistivity prevails over the collisional one and can be responsible for the redistribution of large-scale currents in magnetic loops and small-scale currents in the regions of reconnection of magnetic-field lines.