Proton Kinetic Effects in Vlasov and Solar Wind Turbulence

Abstract: Kinetic plasma processes have been investigated in the framework of solar wind turbulence, employing Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell (HVM) simulations. The dependency of proton temperature anisotropy T_{\perp}/T_{\parallel} on the parallel plasma beta \beta_{\parallel}, commonly observed in spacecraft data, has been recovered using an ensemble of HVM simulations. By varying plasma parameters, such as plasma beta and fluctuation level, the simulations explore distinct regions of the parameter space given by T_{\perp}/T_{\parallel} and \beta_{\parallel}, similar to solar wind sub-datasets. Moreover, both simulation and solar wind data suggest that temperature anisotropy is not only associated with magnetic intermittent events, but also with gradient-type structures in the flow and in the density. This connection between non-Maxwellian kinetic effects and various types of intermittency may be a key point for understanding the complex nature of plasma turbulence.