A model of electromagnetic electron phase-space holes and its application

Abstract

[1] Electron phase-space holes (EHs) are indicators of nonlinear activities in space plasmas. Most often they are observed as electrostatic signals, but recently Andersson et al. [2009] reported electromagnetic EHs observed by the THEMIS mission in the Earth's plasma sheet. As a follow-up to Andersson et al. [2009], this paper presents a model of electromagnetic EHs where the δE × B0 drift of electrons creates a net current. The model is examined with test-particle simulations and compared to the electromagnetic EHs reported by Andersson et al. [2009]. As an application of the model, we introduce a more accurate method than the simplified Lorentz transformation of Andersson et al. [2009] to derive EH velocity (vEH). The sizes and potentials of EHs are derived from vEH, so an accurate derivation of vEH is important in analyzing EHs. In general, our results are qualitatively consistent with those of Andersson et al. [2009] but generally with smaller velocities and sizes.