Two‐dimensional hybrid model of wave and beam heating of multi‐ion solar wind plasma

Abstract

We study the heating and the acceleration of protons and heavy ions by waves in the solar wind, as well as the nonlinear influence of heavy ions on the wave structure, using a two‐dimensional (2‐D) hybrid model. Protons and heavy ions are treated kinetically by solving their equations of motion in the self‐consistent electric and magnetic fields of the waves, while electrons are treated as a neutralizing background fluid. We use the 2‐D hybrid code to investigate more realistic 2‐D plasma model than previous 1‐D simulation and analytical studies, which allows parallel as well as obliquely propagating waves and localized driver. Using the hybrid code, we consider for the first time the heating and acceleration of protons and heavy ions by a driven‐input spectrum of Alfvén/cyclotron waves and by heavy ion beam in the multispecies coronal plasma in two spatial dimensions. We find that the ion beam is more efficient in generating temperature anisotropy than the driven wave spectrum in our model. We discuss the observational implication of the results to the solar wind.