“How are kinetic-scale fluctuations excited and dissipated in space plasmas?”
Kinetic-scale fluctuations play important roles in driving the behaviour of collisionless plasma systems such as those found in the solar wind or planetary magnetospheres. Exploiting the latest developments in space-plasma observations and numerical tools, we will achieve three objectives: First, we will apply novel tools (including modern generalised solvers to the linear Vlasov-Maxwell dispersion relation
and machine-learning methods) to evaluate measured high-resolution velocity distributions regarding their stability or instability against kinetic-scale fluctuations. Second, we will combine our observation-driven
linear-theory results with nonlinear kinetic plasma models such as particle-in-cell and quasilinear simulations. Third, we will identify and evaluate the global impact of kinetic-scale fluctuations on the evolution of space plasmas. This objective will allow us to link our understanding of the excitation and dissipation of kinetic-scale fluctuations to the global behaviour of collisionless space plasma systems.