Abstract
It was shown recently /1/ that an initial alpha-proton drift velocity can lead to the generation of left hand polarized electromagnetic ion-cyclotron waves which can accelerate alpha particles to velocities well in excess of the proton bulk velocity. In the aforementioned reference, the solar wind protons were modeled by a biMaxwellian distribution function. However, the occurrence of a secondary peak is a persistent feature of the observations. Here, a drifting Maxwellian of secondary protons is added to the model. It is shown that the beam does not affect the dispersion relation of the ion-cyclotron waves. A simple model of the magnetic field close to the source of the fast solar wind shows that a proton-thermal anisotropy can generate the required initial alpha-proton drift velocity.
Published Version
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