Significance of Wave-Particle Interaction Analyzer for direct measurements of nonlinear wave-particle interactions

Abstract. In the upcoming JAXA/ERG satellite mission, Wave Particle Interaction Analyzer (WPIA) will be installed as an onboard software function. We study the statistical significance of the WPIA for measurement of the energy transfer process between energetic electrons and whistler-mode chorus emissions in the Earth's inner magnetosphere. The WPIA measures a relative phase angle between the wave vector E and velocity vector v of each electron and computes their inner product W, where W is the time variation of the kinetic energy of energetic electrons interacting with plasma waves. We evaluate the feasibility by applying the WPIA analysis to the simulation results of whistler-mode chorus generation. We compute W using both a wave electric field vector observed at a fixed point in the simulation system and a velocity vector of each energetic electron passing through this point. By summing up W_i of an individual particle i to give W_int, we obtain significant values of W_int as expected from the evolution of chorus emissions in the simulation result. We can discuss the efficiency of the energy exchange through wave-particle interactions by selecting the range of the kinetic energy and pitch angle of the electrons used in the computation of W_int. The statistical significance of the obtained W_int is evaluated by calculating the standard deviation σ_W of W_int. In the results of the analysis, positive or negative W_int is obtained at the different regions of velocity phase space, while at the specific regions the obtained W_int values are significantly greater than σ_W, indicating efficient wave-particle interactions. The present study demonstrates the feasibility of using the WPIA, which will be on board the upcoming ERG satellite, for direct measurement of wave-particle interactions.