Excitation of whistler waves driven by an electron temperature anisotropy

Abstract

A 3-D particle simulation of excitation of whistler waves driven by an electron temperature anisotropy (T ⊥ > T ∥) is presented. Results show that whistler waves can have appreciable growth driven by the anisotropy. The maximum intensity of the excited whistler waves increases as a quadratic function of the anisotropy. Due to the presence of a threshold, one needs a relatively large electron temperature anisotropy above threshold to generate large-amplitude whistler waves. The average amplitude of turbulence in the context of whistler waves is up to as large as about 1% of the ambient magnetic field when T ⊥/T ∥. The total energy density of the whistler turbulence is adequate for production of relativistic electrons in solar flares through stochastic acceleration.