Kinetic model of Janaki et al.'s bifurcated current sheet

Abstract

Space satellite observations show that current sheets in the space plasma environment are often characterized by bifurcated structures. In a recent paper a two‐fluid model of the bifurcated current sheet was constructed on the basis of the pseudo potential method. A straightforward generalization of Janaki et al.'s two‐fluid model to kinetic formalism, however, leads to an unphysical situation of negative particle velocity distribution function occurring over a certain range of velocity space. If one assumes an isotropic background plasma population, however, one can show that a rigorous, physically valid kinetic solution of the bifurcated current sheet can be obtained.