Numerical study of ion-cyclotron resonant interaction via hybrid-Vlasov simulations

Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell numerical simulations are used to investigate the collisionless resonant interaction of ions with ion-cyclotron waves in parallel propagation with respect to a background magnetic field. In linear regime, analytical results on wave damping, obtained by integrating the linearized Vlasov equation through the well-known characteristics method, are compared with the numerical results. Then, the ion heating process and the consequent generation of temperature anisotropy in the direction perpendicular to the background magnetic field are investigated numerically in detail. In nonlinear regime, the numerical results show that the distribution of particle velocities is strongly distorted due to the resonant ion-cyclotron interaction with the formation of diffusive plateaus in the longitudinal direction (with respect to the ambient field) and significantly departs from the Maxwellian equilibrium. These results are relevant in many plasma physics environments, such as the solar wind, where the process of ion-cyclotron heating and the generation of temperature anisotropy and non-Maxwellian velocity distributions are routinely recovered in many in situ measurements, or the laboratory plasmas, where the resonant interaction of ions with ion-cyclotron waves is the primary source of auxiliary heating in the confining apparatus.