Quasilinear wave-particle scattering rate in high-beta turbulent collisionless plasmas
Abstract
Collisionless or weakly collisional plasmas, like the plasma of the intracluster medium of galaxies, are subject to electromagnetic instabilities driven by temperature anisotropy, which naturally arise in the presence of turbulence. These instabilities produce anomalous collisionality via wave-particle scattering, then reducing the mean-free-path of the particles by several orders of magnitude. This reduction affects directly the transport properties of the plasma and makes its large scale dynamics to behave similar to collisional MHD. In particular, it allows the turbulence to amplify the magnetic fields via the small-scale dynamo. Using the quasilinear theory, we calculate the scattering rate of ions due to the kinetic instabilities ion-cyclotron, mirror, and firehose. Using these results we estimate the average scattering rate of ions consistent with data cubes of high-beta MHD turbulence which represent the intracluster medium.
- Publication:
-
IAU General Assembly
- Pub Date:
- August 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015IAUGA..2257864S