Flat-top electron velocity distributions driven by wave-particle resonant interactions

Abstract

The role of kinetic electrons in the excitation and sustainment of ion-bulk electrostatic waves in collisionless plasmas is investigated, with a focus on the physical mechanisms responsible for the generation of small-scale structures in space plasmas. Building on the work of F. Valentini et al., PRL, 106, 165002 (2011), we numerically solve the Vlasov-Poisson system in one spatial and one velocity dimension for both ions and electrons. Our findings reveal that a significant fraction of the energy supplied by an external driving electric field, used to trigger ion-bulk waves excitation, is transferred to electrons, which become trapped within the wave potential well. As a result, multiple phase-space vortices, generated during the early time evolution, undergo a merging process in the long-time limit, ultimately resulting in a single, coherent, and persistent phase-space hole in the distributions of both species. Furthermore, the resonant interaction between electrons and ion-bulk fluctuations induces a velocity-space diffusion process, leading to the development of a "flat-top" profile in the electron velocity distribution, routinely observed in near Earth space. To establish observational relevance, virtual spacecraft measurements were performed to evaluate the detectability of the velocity distribution features observed in the simulations using modern spaceborne instruments. The results presented here are consistent with observations of electrostatic phenomena in space plasmas, and underscore the widespread occurrence of such structures across various plasma environments.