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Results for “MAGNETOSPHERE”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

The loss rates of O{sup +} in the inner magnetosphere caused by both magnetic field line curvature scattering and charge exchange reactions

With consideration of magnetic field line curvature (FLC) pitch angle scattering and charge exchange reactions, the O{sup +} (>300 keV) in the inner magnetosphere loss rates are investigated by using an eigenfunction analysis. The FLC scattering provides a mechanism for the ring current O{sup +} to enter the loss cone and influence the loss rates caused by charge exchange reactions. Assuming that the pitch angle change is small for each scattering event, the diffusion equation including a charge exchange term is constructed and solved; the eigenvalues of the equation are identified. The resultant loss rates of O{sup +} are approximately equal to the linear superposition of the loss rate without considering the charge exchange reactions and the loss rate associated with charge exchange reactions alone. The loss time is consistent with the observations from the early recovery phases of magnetic storms.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Observation of a new high-β and high-density state of a magnetospheric plasma in RT-1

A new high-β and high-density state is reported for a plasma confined in a laboratory magnetosphere. In order to expand the parameter regime of an electron cyclotron resonance heating experiment, the 8.2 GHz microwave power of the Ring Trap 1 device has been upgraded with the installation of a new waveguide system. The rated input power launched from a klystron was increased from 25 to 50 kW, which enabled the more stable formation of a hot-electron high-β plasma. The diamagnetic signal (the averaged value of four magnetic loops signals) of a plasma reached 5.2 mWb. According to a two-dimensional Grad-Shafranov analysis, the corresponding local β value is close to 100%.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

A statistical study of three-second foreshock ULF waves observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission

We perform a statistical study of 3-s ultra-low frequency (ULF) waves using Magnetospheric Multiscale observations in the Earth's foreshock region. The average phase velocity in the plasma rest frame is determined to be anti-sunward, and the intrinsic polarization is right-handed. We further examine the linear instability conditions based on the drift-bi-Maxwellian distribution functions according to the observed plasma conditions. The resulting instability is a solution to the common dispersion equation of the ion/ion right-hand non-resonant and left-hand resonant instabilities. The predicted wave propagation is also predominantly anti-sunward. The cyclotron resonant conditions of the solar wind and backstreaming beam ions are evaluated, and we find that, in some cases, the anti-sunward propagating waves can be resonant with beam ions, which was overlooked in previous studies. The study suggests that the dispersion equation provides the 3-s ULF waves a fundamental explanation that unifies a rich variety of resonant conditions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

The evolution of high-temperature plasma in magnetar magnetospheres and its implications for giant flares

In this paper we propose a new mechanism describing the initial spike of giant flares in the framework of the starquake model. We investigate the evolution of a plasma on a closed magnetic flux tube in the magnetosphere of a magnetar in the case of a sudden energy release, and discuss the relationship with observations of giant flares. We perform one-dimensional, numerical simulations of the relativistic magnetohydrodynamics in Schwarzschild geometry. We assume energy is injected at the footpoints of the loop by a hot star surface containing random perturbations of the transverse velocity. Alfvén waves are generated and propagate upward, accompanying very hot plasma which is also continuously heated by nonlinearly generated compressive waves. We find that the front edges of the fireball regions collide at the top of the tube with their symmetrically launched counterparts. This collision results in an energy release that can describe the light curve of the initial spikes of giant flares.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Inducing chaos by breaking axial symmetry in a black hole magnetosphere

While the motion of particles near a rotating, electrically neutral (Kerr), and charged (Kerr-Newman) black hole is always strictly regular, a perturbation in the gravitational or the electromagnetic field generally leads to chaos. The transition from regular to chaotic dynamics is relatively gradual if the system preserves axial symmetry, whereas non-axisymmetry induces chaos more efficiently. Here we study the development of chaos in an oblique (electro-vacuum) magnetosphere of a magnetized black hole. Besides the strong gravity of the massive source represented by the Kerr metric, we consider the presence of a weak, ordered, large-scale magnetic field. An axially symmetric model consisting of a rotating black hole embedded in an aligned magnetic field is generalized by allowing an oblique direction of the field having a general inclination with respect to the rotation axis of the system. The inclination of the field acts as an additional perturbation to the motion of charged particles as it breaks the axial symmetry of the system and cancels the related integral of motion. The axial component of angular momentum is no longer conserved and the resulting system thus has three degrees of freedom. Our primary concern within this contribution is to find out how sensitive the system of bound particles is to the inclination of the field. We employ the method of the maximal Lyapunov exponent to distinguish between regular and chaotic orbits and to quantify their chaoticity. We find that even a small misalignment induces chaotic motion.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Trumpler 16-26: a new centrifugal magnetosphere star discovered via SDSS/APOGEE H -band spectroscopy

ABSTRACT We report the discovery of a new example of the rare class of highly magnetized, rapidly rotating, helium enhanced, early B stars that produce anomalously wide hydrogen emission due to a centrifugal magnetosphere (CM). The star is Trumpler 16-26, a B1.5 V member of the Trumpler 16 open cluster. A CM was initially suspected based on hydrogen Brackett series emission observed in SDSS/APOGEE H-band spectra. Similar to the other stars of this type, the emission was highly variable and at all times remarkable due to the extreme velocity separations of the double peaks (up to 1300 km s−1.) Another clue lay in the TESS light curve, which shows two irregular eclipses per cycle when phased with the likely 0.971 8115-d rotation period, similar to the behaviour of the well-known CM host star σ Ori E. To confirm a strong magnetic field and rotation-phase-locked variability, we initiated a follow-up campaign consisting of optical spectropolarimetry and spectroscopy. The associated data revealed a longitudinal magnetic field varying between −3.1 and +1.6 kG with the period found from photometry. The optical spectra confirmed rapid rotation (v sin i = 195 km s−1), surface helium enhancement, and wide, variable hydrogen emission. Tr16-26 is thus confirmed as the 20th known, the fourth most rapidly rotating, and the faintest CM host star yet discovered. With a projected dipole magnetic field strength of Bd > 11 kG, Tr16-26 is also among the most magnetic CM stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Fast radio bursts from axion stars moving through pulsar magnetospheres

Here, we study the radio signals generated when an axion star enters the magnetosphere of a neutron star. As the axion star moves through the resonant region where the plasma-induced photon mass becomes equal to the axion mass, the axions can efficiently convert into photons, giving rise to an intense, transient radio signal. We show that a dense axion star with a mass ~10 -13 M ⊙ composed of ~10 μ eV axions can account for most of the mysterious fast radio bursts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Investigation of Ion-Acoustic Solitons in Magnetosphere and Tokamak Warm Plasma with Two-Temperature Electrons

The properties of oblique propagation of small amplitude ion-acoustic soliton are investigated in a plasma containing weakly relativistic ions and two-temperature electrons (cold and hot electrons). The reductive perturbation method is used to derive the Korteweg−de Vries equation for the present plasma model. It is found that the parameters determining the nature of soliton are different for compressive or rarefactive structures. Moreover, the effects of weakly relativistic ions, the temperature ratio, and the density ratio of hot-to-cold electron species on soliton characters are studied. The theory is applied on the case of relativistic ions observed in the magnetosphere and in the case of nonrelativistic ions observed in tokamaks.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Comment on "Mode Conversion of Waves In The Ion-Cyclotron Frequency Range in Magnetospheric Plasmas"

Recently, Kazakov and Fulop [1] studied mode conversion (MC) at the ion-ion hybrid (IIH) resonance in planetary magnetospheric plasmas by simplifying the dispersion relation of the fast wave (FW) modes to describe a cutoff-resonance (CR) pair near the IIH resonance, which can be reduced to a Budden problem. They suggested that when the IIH resonance frequency (ωS) approaches the crossover frequency (ωcr), and the parallel wavenumber (k∥) is close to the critical wavenumber k* ∥(ωS = ωcr), MC can be efficient for arbitrary heavy ion density ratios. In this Comment, we argue that (a) the FW dispersion relation cannot be simplified to the CR pair especially near ωcr because in many parameter regimes there is a cutoff-resonance-cutoff (CRC) triplet that completely changes the wave absorption; and (b) the maximum MC efficiency does not always occur near k∥ ≈ k*∥∥.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Photoionization Models for the Inner Gaseous Disks of Herbig Be Stars: Evidence against Magnetospheric Accretion?

We investigate the physical properties of the inner gaseous disks of three hot Herbig B2e stars, HD 76534, HD 114981, and HD 216629, by modeling CFHT-ESPaDOns spectra using non-LTE radiative transfer codes. We assume that the emission lines are produced in a circumstellar disk heated solely by photospheric radiation from the central star in order to test whether the optical and near-infrared emission lines can be reproduced without invoking magnetospheric accretion. The inner gaseous disk density was assumed to follow a simple power-law in the equatorial plane, and we searched for models that could reproduce observed lines of H i (H α and H β ), He i, Ca ii, and Fe ii. For the three stars, good matches were found for all emission line profiles individually; however, no density model based on a single power-law was able to reproduce all of the observed emission lines. Among the single power-law models, the one with the gas density varying as ∼10{sup −10}( R {sub *}/ R ){sup 3} g cm{sup −3} in the equatorial plane of a 25 R {sub *} (0.78 au) disk did the best overall job of representing the optical emission lines of the three stars. This model implies a mass for the H α -emitting portion of the inner gaseous disk of ∼10{sup −9} M {sub *}. We conclude that the optical emission line spectra of these HBe stars can be qualitatively reproduced by a ≈1 au, geometrically thin, circumstellar disk of negligible mass compared to the central star in Keplerian rotation and radiative equilibrium.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Time-dependent Models of Magnetospheric Accretion onto Young Stars

Accretion onto Classical T Tauri stars is thought to take place through the action of magnetospheric processes, with gas in the inner disk being channeled onto the star’s surface by the stellar magnetic field lines. Young stars are known to accrete material in a time-variable manner, and the source of this variability remains an open problem, particularly on the shortest (∼day) timescales. Using one-dimensional time-dependent numerical simulations that follow the field line geometry, we find that for plausibly realistic young stars, steady-state transonic accretion occurs naturally in the absence of any other source of variability. However, we show that if the density in the inner disk varies smoothly in time with ∼day-long timescales (e.g., due to turbulence), this complication can lead to the development of shocks in the accretion column. These shocks propagate along the accretion column and ultimately hit the star, leading to rapid, large amplitude changes in the accretion rate. We argue that when these shocks hit the star, the observed time dependence will be a rapid increase in accretion luminosity, followed by a slower decline, and could be an explanation for some of the short-period variability observed in accreting young stars. Our one-dimensional approach bridges previous analytic work to more complicated multi-dimensional simulations and observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Magnetospheric Truncation, Tidal Inspiral, and the Creation of Short-period and Ultra-short-period Planets

Sub-Neptunes around FGKM dwarfs are evenly distributed in log orbital period down to ∼10 days, but dwindle in number at shorter periods. Both the break at ∼10 days and the slope of the occurrence rate down to ∼1 day can be attributed to the truncation of protoplanetary disks by their host star magnetospheres at corotation. We demonstrate this by deriving planet occurrence rate profiles from empirical distributions of pre-main-sequence stellar rotation periods. Observed profiles are better reproduced when planets are distributed randomly in disks—as might be expected if planets formed in situ—rather than piled up near disk edges, as would be the case if they migrated in by disk torques. Planets can be brought from disk edges to ultra-short (<1 day) periods by asynchronous equilibrium tides raised on their stars. Tidal migration can account for how ultra-short-period planets are more widely spaced than their longer-period counterparts. Our picture provides a starting point for understanding why the sub-Neptune population drops at ∼10 days regardless of whether the host star is of type FGK or early M. We predict planet occurrence rates around A stars to also break at short periods, but at ∼1 day instead of ∼10 days because A stars rotate faster than stars with lower masses (this prediction presumes that the planetesimal building blocks of planets can drift inside the dust sublimation radius).

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Relativistic Alfvén Waves Entering Charge-starvation in the Magnetospheres of Neutron Stars

Instabilities in a neutron star can generate Alfvén waves in its magnetosphere. Propagation along the curved magnetic field lines strongly shears the wave, boosting its electric current j A . We derive an analytic expression for the evolution of the wavevector k and the growth of j A . In the strongly sheared regime, j A may exceed the maximum current j0 that can be supported by the background e ± plasma. We investigate these charge-starved waves, first using a simplified two-fluid analytic model, then with first-principles kinetic simulations. We find that the Alfvén wave is able to propagate successfully even when κ ≡ j A /j 0 $\ll$ 1. It sustains j A by compressing and advecting the plasma along the magnetic field lines with an increasing Lorentz factor, γ ≳ κ 1/2 . The simulations show how plasma instabilities lead to gradual dissipation of the wave energy. Our results suggest that an extremely high charge-starvation parameter κ ≳ 10 4 may be required in order for this mechanism to power the observed fast radio bursts (FRBs) from SGR 1935+2154. However, cosmological FRBs with much higher luminosities are unlikely to be a result of charge-starvation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Magnetospheric Multiscale Observations of Electron Vortex Magnetic Hole in the Turbulent Magnetosheath Plasma

We report on the observations of an electron vortex magnetic hole corresponding to a new type of coherent structure in the turbulent magnetosheath plasma using the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission data. The magnetic hole is characterized by a magnetic depression, a density peak, a total electron temperature increase (with a parallel temperature decrease but a perpendicular temperature increase), and strong currents carried by the electrons. The current has a dip in the core region and a peak in the outer region of the magnetic hole. The estimated size of the magnetic hole is about 0.23 ρ {sub i} (∼30 ρ {sub e}) in the quasi-circular cross-section perpendicular to its axis, where ρ {sub i} and ρ {sub e} are respectively the proton and electron gyroradius. There are no clear enhancements seen in high-energy electron fluxes. However, there is an enhancement in the perpendicular electron fluxes at 90° pitch angle inside the magnetic hole, implying that the electrons are trapped within it. The variations of the electron velocity components V {sub em} and V {sub en} suggest that an electron vortex is formed by trapping electrons inside the magnetic hole in the cross-section in the M – N plane. These observations demonstrate the existence of a new type of coherent structures behaving as an electron vortex magnetic hole in turbulent space plasmas as predicted by recent kinetic simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

High-resolution Statistics of Solar Wind Turbulence at Kinetic Scales Using the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

Using data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) and Cluster missions obtained in the solar wind, we examine second-order and fourth-order structure functions at varying spatial lags normalized to ion inertial scales. The analysis includes direct two-spacecraft results and single-spacecraft results employing the familiar Taylor frozen-in flow approximation. Several familiar statistical results, including the spectral distribution of energy, and the sale-dependent kurtosis, are extended down to unprecedented spatial scales of ∼6 km, approaching electron scales. The Taylor approximation is also confirmed at those small scales, although small deviations are present in the kinetic range. The kurtosis is seen to attain very high values at sub-proton scales, supporting the previously reported suggestion that monofractal behavior may be due to high-frequency plasma waves at kinetic scales.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Indirect measurements of slow modes in the Hermean magnetosphere

The aim of this study is to simulate slow mode structures in the Hermean magnetosphere. We use the single fluid MHD code PLUTO and a multipolar expansion of the Northward displaced Hermean magnetic field, to perform simulations mimicking the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field conditions during 08/09/2011 MESSERGER orbit, susceptible to cross a slow mode structure [F. Pantellini et al, PSS, 112, 1 (2015) and J. Varela et al, PSS, 125, 80 (2016)]. The simulation shows the presence of a slow mode structure nearby the North pole. The satellite trajectory crosses the slow mode compressional front, although the region with the largest pressure and magnetic field lines bending is located Northernmost. The comparison with the MESSENGER data shows a decrease of the magnetic field module in the trajectory region where the slow mode structure is predicted by the simulation. Further analysis of the plasma density measurements by MESSENGER Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer are required to confirm the presence of the slow mode structure.

Filippo, Pantellini↗