Spacecraft Observations and Theoretical Understanding of Slow Electron Holes

Sergey R Kamaletdinov; Ian H Hutchinson; Ivan Y Vasko; Anton V Artemyev; Ajay Lotekar; Forrest Mozer

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.165101

Spacecraft Observations and Theoretical Understanding of Slow Electron Holes

Phys Rev Lett. 2021 Oct 15;127(16):165101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.165101.

Authors

Sergey R Kamaletdinov¹, Ian H Hutchinson², Ivan Y Vasko³, Anton V Artemyev⁴, Ajay Lotekar⁵, Forrest Mozer⁶

Affiliations

¹ Space Research Institute, Moscow 117997, Russia and Department of Physics, Moscow State University, Moscow 119234, Russia.
² Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
³ Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA and Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 117997, Russia.
⁴ University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA and Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 117997, Russia.
⁵ Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala 752 37, Sweden.
⁶ Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA and Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.

PMID: 34723586
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.165101

Abstract

We present Magnetospheric Multiscale observations showing large numbers of slow electron holes with speeds clustered near the local minimum of double-humped velocity distribution functions of background ions. Theoretical computations show that slow electron holes can avoid the acceleration that otherwise prevents their remaining slow only under these same circumstances. Although the origin of the slow electron holes is still elusive, the agreement between observation and theory about the conditions for their existence is remarkable.