Abstract
The paper addresses the connection between the polytropic behavior - the specific power-law relationship among the thermal plasma moments- and the functional form of the distribution of particle velocities and energies. Surprisingly, the polytropic behavior requires the statistical mechanics of the plasma particles to turn to the framework of kappa distributions. While it was already known that kappa distributions can lead to the polytropic relationship, the new result shows that the reverse derivation is also true; thus, the polytropic behavior has the role of a mechanism generating kappa distributions. Therefore, when observations confirm the existence of a polytropic behavior in plasma particles, then the framework of kappa distributions for describing particle velocities and energies can be indirectly confirmed.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 012010 |
Journal | Journal of Physics: Conference Series |
Volume | 1332 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 14 2019 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | 18th Annual International Astrophysics Conference, AIAC 2019 - Pasadena, United States Duration: Feb 18 2019 → Feb 22 2019 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Physics and Astronomy