Princeton Center for Heliophysics Seminar

Turbulence transfers energy from larger to smaller scales, wherein kinetic processes culminate in dissipation. In the context of the weakly collisional, multi-species solar wind, grasping the fundamental processes that facilitate energy exchange between the electromagnetic fields and particles is imperative to understand plasma heating, acceleration, and transport. In this presentation, I will discuss two ongoing studies aimed at addressing wave-particle interactions in the solar wind: (1) an investigation of the kinetic-scale spectral features of magnetic and velocity fluctuations utilizing flux-angle measurements from Parker Solar Probe; and (2) a novel Slepian Basis Reconstruction technique for ion velocity distribution functions. Finally, I will discuss this work's key findings and future extensions.