On the Origin of High–Frequency Magnetic Fluctuations in the Interplanetary Medium: A Brownian–like Approach

Abstract

Low–frequency fluctuations in the interplanetary medium have been extensively investigated and described in the framework of turbulence, and the observed universal scaling behavior represents a clear signature of the underlying energy cascade. On the contrary, the interpretation of observations of plasma fluctuations at high frequencies, where wave–wave coupling, collisionless dissipation, and anomalous plasma heating play a key role, still represents a challenge for theoretical modeling. In this paper the high frequency fluctuations occurring in the interplanetary space are described through a Brownian–like approach, where the plasma dynamics at small scales is described through a stochastic process. It is shown that a simple model based on this framework is able to successfully reproduce the main features of the spectrum of the observed magnetic fluctuations. Moreover, the Fluctuation-Dissipation Relation, derived by our model, leads to a power law between dissipation rate and temperature, which is compatible with the occurrence of Landau damping, interpreted thus as the main mechanism of dissipation in the solar wind plasma.