Effects of Background Turbulence on the Relaxation of Ion Temperature Anisotropy Firehose Instability in Space Plasmas

Abstract

Turbulence in space plasmas usually exhibits an energy cascade in which large-scale magnetic fluctuations are dominated by non-linear MHD wave–wave interactions following a Kolmogorov-like power-law spectrum. In addition, at scales at which kinetic effects take place, the magnetic spectrum follows a steeper power-law k−α shape given by a spectral index α>5/3. In a recent publication, a quasilinear model was used to study the evolution of ion temperatures in a collisionless plasma in which electromagnetic waves propagate along the background magnetic field, and it was found that the interaction between the plasma and a turbulent spectrum of ion-cyclotron waves may lead the plasma to states out of thermal equilibrium characterized by enhanced temperature anisotropies T⊥>T‖ and with a reduction in the parallel proton beta, which is consistent with space observations. Here, we complement such studies by analyzing the quasilinear interaction between plasma and a solar-wind-like turbulent spectrum of fast magnetosonic waves, and study the role of firehose instability (FHI) in the regulation of temperature anisotropy. Our results show that the presence of turbulence significantly modifies the FHI marginal stability threshold, as predicted from linear theory. Moreover, depending on the value of the plasma β, a turbulent magnetosonic spectrum may lead an initially thermally isotropic plasma to develop anisotropic states in which T⊥T‖.

Keywords

• space plasma physics
• turbulence
• magnetosonic waves
• firehose instability
• quasilinear theory