Curie law for systems described by kappa distributions

Southwest Research Institute - San Antonio, TX 78238, USA

^(a) glivadiotis@swri.edu
glivad@phys.uoa.gr

Received: 15 November 2015
Accepted: 4 January 2016

Abstract

We derive the magnetization of a system, Pierre Curie's law, for paramagnetic particles out of thermal equilibrium described by kappa distributions. The analysis uses the theory and formulation of the kappa distributions that describe particle systems with a non-zero potential energy. Among other results, emphasis is placed on the effect of kappa distribution on the phenomenon of having strong magnetization at high temperatures. At thermal equilibrium, high temperature leads to weak magnetization. Out of thermal equilibrium, however, strong magnetization at high temperatures is rather possible, if the paramagnetic particle systems reside far from thermal equilibrium, i.e., at small values of kappa. The application of the theory to the space plasma at the outer boundaries of our heliosphere, the inner heliosheath, leads to an estimation of the ion magnetic moment for this space plasma, that is, .