Variational Formulation of a Hybrid Kinetic and Gyrokinetic Model for Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas

Abstract

We present a Lagrangian model that encapsulates fully kinetic ions and gyrokinetic electrons for solar wind electromagnetic turbulence. Using a consistent method, where both electrons and protons are treated with the same mathematical formalism, we derive and implement a model in which high-frequency waves and kinetic electron effects are described in a computationally cost-efficient way. Higher-order Lie-transform perturbation methods applied to Hamiltonian formulation of guiding center motion are used to describe the dynamics of particles and fields. We use a variational approach to derive field equations for closure of the system.