Electron quasi-viscous effects in collisionless slow-mode shocks

Abstract

[1] The dynamics of collisionless slow-mode shocks are examined using one-dimensional full particle (kinetic ions and electrons) and hybrid (kinetic ions, massless fluid electrons) simulations. Full particle simulations indicate that the downstream electron temperature becomes anisotropic (T e > T e ⊥) at very oblique angles. The anisotropy results from both the large mirror effects and the electron heating due to the parallel electric field of very obliquely propagating kinetic Alfven waves; it gives rise to finite off-diagonal electron pressure tensor terms in the simulation frame. Inclusion of these electron quasi-viscous effects in hybrid simulations allows slow shocks to be set up at very oblique angles, as observed in the distant tail, where dissipation from ion-ion streaming becomes much weaker.