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Updated: Jul 4, 2025

Optimizing Magnetic Force Microscopy Resolution and Sensitivity to Visualize Nanoscale Magnetic Domains
Published on: July 20, 2022
Electron scale coherent structure as micro accelerator in the Earth's magnetosheath
Zi-Kang Xie1, Qiu-Gang Zong2,3, Chao Yue1
1Institute of Space Physics and Applied Technology, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Abstract:
Turbulent energy dissipation is a fundamental process in plasma physics that has not been settled. It is generally believed that the turbulent energy is dissipated at electron scales leading to electron energization in magnetized plasmas. Here, we propose a micro accelerator which could transform electrons from isotropic distribution to trapped, and then to stream (Strahl) distribution. From the MMS observations of an electron-scale coherent structure in the dayside magnetosheath, we identify an electron flux enhancement region in this structure collocated with an increase of magnetic field strength, which is also closely associated with a non-zero parallel electric field. We propose a trapping model considering a field-aligned electric potential together with the mirror force. The results are consistent with the observed electron fluxes from ~50 eV to ~200 eV. It further demonstrates that bidirectional electron jets can be formed by the hourglass-like magnetic configuration of the structure.
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