Modeling space plasma dynamics with anisotropic Kappa distributions

Abstract

Space plasmas are collisionpoor and kinetic effects prevail leading to wave fluctuations, which transfer the energy to small scales: wave-particle interactions replace collisions and enhance dispersive effects heating particles and producing suprathermal populations observed at any heliospheric distance in the solar wind. At large distances collisions are not efficient, and the selfgenerated instabilities constrain the solar wind anisotropy including the thermal core and the suprathermal components. The generalized power-laws of Kappa-type are the best fitting model for the observed distributions of particles, and a convenient mathematical tool for modeling their dynamics. But the anisotropic Kappa models are not correlated with the observations leading, in general, to inconsistent effects. This review work aims to reconcile some of the existing Kappa models with the observations.

Paper accepted for publication in Astronomy and Space Science Proceedings - Springer (presented by M. Lazar at the International Astrophysics Forum 2011: Frontiers in Space Environment Research, at the Congress Centrum Alpbach (Austria) / June 20 - 24, 2011.)