Understanding Kappa Distributions: A Toolbox for Space Science and Astrophysics
By George Livadiotis, David John McComas. 2013
362 citations recorded by the source corpus.
In this paper we examine the physical foundations and theoretical development of the kappa distribution, which arises naturally from non-extensive Statistical Mechanics. The kappa distribution provides a straightforward replacement for the Maxwell distribution when dealing with systems in stationary states out of thermal equilibrium, commonly found in space and astrophysical plasmas. Prior studies have used a variety of inconsistent, and sometimes incorrect, formulations, which have led to significant confusion about these distributions. Therefore, in this study, we start from the N-particle phase space distribution and develop seven formulations for kappa distributions that range from the most general to several specialized versions that can be directly used with common types of space data. Collectively, these formulations and their guidelines provide a “toolbox” of useful and statistically well-grounded equations for future space physics analyses that seek to apply kappa distributions in data analysis, simulations, modeling, theory, and other work.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Geophysics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/71daea17cd32f373befacd60ed55281132251617
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Citations in the corpus
- Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP): A New NASA Mission (2018, neutral): “Livadiotis and McComas (2009, 2013) 49.”
- Introduction to special section on Origins and Properties of Kappa Distributions: Statistical Background and Properties of Kappa Distributions in Space Plasmas (2015, methodology): “…including solar wind [e.g., Collier et al., 1996; Mann et al., 2002; Maksimovic et al., 2005; Marsch, 2006; Zouganelis, 2008; Štverák et al., 2009; Livadiotis and McComas, 2010a, 2011a, 2013d; Yoon, 2014], solar corona [e.g., Owocki and Scudder, 1983; Vocks et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2013;…”