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DOE OSTI · 1616370

Electron temperature of the solar wind

Boldyrev, Stanislav·Forest, Cary·Egedal, Jan
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Abstract

Significance The problem of solar wind heating is one of the long-standing fundamental problems of space plasma physics. We propose that the electron component of the solar wind plasma is heated by electrons streaming from the hot solar corona and slowly losing their energy due to weak Coulomb collisions. Our first-principle kinetic derivation predicts the scaling of the solar wind electron temperature with the heliocentric distance, which is in good agreement with observations. Our theory reveals the role of the non-Maxwellian electron distribution function in the heating mechanism, and it may be valuable for interpreting the results of in situ satellite measurements.

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79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICSheliospherekinetic theorymagnetic fieldplasmasolar wind

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Boldyrev, Stanislav, Forest, Cary, Egedal, Jan. 2020-04-14. Electron temperature of the solar wind. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917905117

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