Abstract

Preferential heating and acceleration of heavy ions in the solar wind and corona represent a long-standing theoretical problem in space physics, and are distinct experimental signatures of kinetic processes occurring in collisionless plasmas. We show that fast and slow ion-acoustic waves (IAW) and transverse waves, driven by Alfvén-cyclotron wave parametric instabilities can selectively destroy the coherent fluid motion of different ion species and, in this way lead to their differential heating and acceleration. Trapping of the more abundant protons by the fast IAW generates a proton beam with drift speed of about the Alfvén speed. Because of their larger mass, ? particles do not become significantly trapped and start, by conservation of total ion momentum, drifting relative to the receding bulk protons. Thus the resulting core protons and the ? particles are differentially heated via pitch-angle scattering. © 2009 The American Physical Society.