Shear-Alfvén waves in gyrokinetic plasmas

Abstract

It is found that the thermal fluctuation level of the shear-Alfvén waves in a gyrokinetic plasma is dependent on plasma β(≡cs2/vA2), where cs is the ion acoustic speed and vA is the Alfvén velocity. This unique thermodynamic property based on the fluctuation–dissipation theorem is verified in this paper using a new gyrokinetic particle simulation scheme, which splits the particle distribution function into the equilibrium part as well as the adiabatic and nonadiabatic parts. The numerical implication of this property is discussed.