Electron acceleration driven by the lower-hybrid-drift instability: An extended quasilinear model

Federico Lavorenti

Density inhomogeneities are ubiquitous in space and astrophysical plasmas. Such density inhomogeneities are a source of free energy that can drive various instabilities such as the lower-hybrid-drift instability, which, in turn, transfers energy to the particles through wave-particle interactions. Our study is aimed at quantifying the efficiency of the lower-hybrid-drift instability to accelerate electrons parallel to the ambient magnetic field. We combine two complementary methods: full-kinetic and quasilinear models. We report self-consistent evidence of electron acceleration driven by the lower-hybrid-drift instability in 3D-3V full-kinetic numerical simulations. Since the efficiency of the observed acceleration cannot be explained by standard quasilinear theory, we develop an extended quasilinear model. Finally, we validate and apply this new, extended quasilinear model to the realistic case of the magnetopause of Mercury, in support to the BepiColombo mission.

Related paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.05011