Observational evidence of accelerating electron holes and their effects on passing ions.


Journal

Nature communications
ISSN: 2041-1723
Titre abrégé: Nat Commun
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101528555

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
10 Nov 2023
Historique:
received: 16 06 2023
accepted: 27 10 2023
medline: 11 11 2023
pubmed: 11 11 2023
entrez: 10 11 2023
Statut: epublish

Résumé

As a universal structure in space plasma, electron holes represent an obvious signature of nonlinear process. Although the theory has a 60-year history, whether electron hole can finally accelerate ambient electrons (or ions) is quite controversial. Previous theory for one-dimensional holes predicts that net velocity change of passing electrons (or ions) occurs only if the holes have non-zero acceleration. However, the prediction has not yet been demonstrated in observations. Here, we report four electron holes whose acceleration/deceleration is obtained by fitting the spatial separations and detection time delays between different Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft. We find that electron hole acceleration/deceleration is related to the ion velocity distribution gradient at the hole's velocity. We observe net velocity changes of ions passing through the accelerating/decelerating holes, in accordance with theoretical predictions. Therefore, we show that electron holes with non-zero acceleration can cause the velocity of passing ions to increase in the acceleration direction.

Identifiants

pubmed: 37949855
doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-43033-4
pii: 10.1038/s41467-023-43033-4
pmc: PMC10638271
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

7276

Informations de copyright

© 2023. The Author(s).

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Auteurs

Yue Dong (Y)

School of Electronic Information, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

Zhigang Yuan (Z)

School of Electronic Information, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China. y_zgang@vip.163.com.

Shiyong Huang (S)

School of Electronic Information, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

Zuxiang Xue (Z)

School of Electronic Information, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

Xiongdong Yu (X)

School of Electronic Information, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

C J Pollock (CJ)

Denali Scientific, Fairbanks, AK, USA.

R B Torbert (RB)

Physics Department, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA.

J L Burch (JL)

Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, USA.

Classifications MeSH