Anomalous skin effects in anisotropic kappa distributed plasmas

Abstract

Anomalous skin effects (ASEs) are studied for the transverse electromagnetic waves in an unmagnetized collisionless plasma using anisotropic kappa distribution. The effects of the kappa spectral index (κ), temperature anisotropy (A=T⊥/T||), and the wave frequency (ω) on the ASEs are highlighted to be applicable for a wide range of plasma parameters. It is shown that the skin depth is reduced in a kappa distributed plasma as compared to the Maxwellian one. The anisotropy may enhance/reduce the skin depth depending upon the wave frequency to plasma frequency ratio (ω/ωp) and the regime of the anisotropy (i.e., A > 1 or A < 1). The results for the Maxwellian distribution (κ→∞) are also retrieved. The possible applications to space and laboratory plasmas are also discussed.