Vlasov simulation of electrostatic solitary structures in multi‐component plasmas

Abstract

Electrostatic solitary structures have been observed in the Earth's magnetosheath by the Cluster spacecraft. Recent theoretical work has suggested that these solitary structures are modeled by electron acoustic solitary waves existing in a four‐component plasma system consisting of core electrons, two counter‐streaming electron beams, and one species of background ions. In this paper, the excitation of electron acoustic waves and the formation of solitary structures are studied by means of a one‐dimensional electrostatic Vlasov simulation. The present result first shows that either electron acoustic solitary waves with negative potential or electron phase‐space holes with positive potential are excited in four‐component plasma systems. However, these electrostatic solitary structures have longer duration times and higher wave amplitudes than the solitary structures observed in the magnetosheath. The result indicates that a high‐speed and small free energy source may be needed as a fifth component. An additional simulation of a five‐component plasma consisting of a stable four‐component plasma and a weak electron beam shows the generation of small and fast electron phase‐space holes by the bump‐on‐tail instability. The physical properties of the small and fast electron phase‐space holes are very similar to those obtained by the previous theoretical analysis. The amplitude and duration time of solitary structures in the simulation are also in agreement with the Cluster observation.