Abstract

We present two generalized hybrid kinetic-Hall magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) models describing the interaction of a two-fluid bulk plasma, which consists of thermal ions and electrons, with energetic, suprathermal ion populations described by Vlasov dynamics. The dynamics of the thermal components are governed by standard fluid equations in the Hall MHD limit with the electron momentum equation providing an Ohm's law with Hall and electron pressure terms involving a gyrotropic electron pressure tensor. The coupling of the bulk, low-energy plasma with the energetic particle dynamics is accomplished through the current density (current coupling scheme; CCS) and the ion pressure tensor appearing in the momentum equation (pressure coupling scheme; PCS) in the first and the second model, respectively. The CCS is a generalization of two well-known models, because in the limit of vanishing energetic and thermal ion densities, we recover the standard Hall MHD and the hybrid kinetic-ions/fluid-electron model, respectively. This provides us with the capability to study in a continuous manner, the global impact of the energetic particles in a regime extending from vanishing to dominant energetic particle densities. The noncanonical Hamiltonian structures of the CCS and PCS, which can be exploited to study equilibrium and stability properties through the energy-Casimir variational principle, are identified. As a first application here, we derive a generalized Hall MHD Grad–Shafranov–Bernoulli system for translationally symmetric equilibria with anisotropic electron pressure and kinetic effects owing to the presence of energetic particles using the PCS.

Highlights

  • The presence of energetic, suprathermal particle populations, which can modify the global plasma dynamics owing to their high kinetic energies while having small density compared with that of thermal particles, is a common feature in astrophysical and fusion plasmas

  • The coupling of the kinetic and the fluid components is effected through the current density in the first case and through the pressure tensors of the particle species in the second

  • We consider a gyrotropic electron pressure tensor, which is legitimate in the Hall MHD limit, i.e. when neglecting electron length scales

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Summary

Introduction

The presence of energetic, suprathermal particle populations, which can modify the global plasma dynamics owing to their high kinetic energies while having small density compared with that of thermal particles, is a common feature in astrophysical and fusion plasmas. Tronci (2010) provides the derivation of a noncanonical Poisson bracket that correctly describes the dynamics of a standard hybrid model that treats the electrons as a fluid with zero inertia while retaining a Vlasov description for the ions (see e.g. Winske et al 2003) This model resolves the ion kinetic scales but not those of the electron, saving computational resources while reproducing the structural details of the reconnection region, which may consist of thin current sheets with thickness of the order of the ion inertial length. We employ the energy-Casimir variational principle that leads to equilibrium equations and § 5 summarizes our results

Model equations
Hamiltonian structure
Casimir invariants
Conventional construction of a PCS
Hamiltonian construction of a PCS
Translationally symmetric formulation
Energy-Casimir equilibria
Conclusions

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