The Role of Cold Oxygen Ions in the EMIC Wave Growth

Electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves, driven by ring current ion temperature anisotropy in the Earth's magnetosphere, play a key role in accelerating and precipitating relativistic electrons in the radiation belts. Their excitation and saturation are significantly affected by the surrounding cold plasma. Previous studies have shown that background cold helium ions can influence the growth and saturation of EMIC waves, yet the role of cold oxygen ions in wave saturation remains less understood. In this paper, we use linear theory and nonlinear hybrid simulation to investigate the effect of cold oxygen ions in the EMIC wave growth and saturation in a homogeneous plasma containing hot and cold protons, cold helium and cold oxygen ions. Our findings reveal that increasing the cold oxygen ion concentration decreases the EMIC wave growth rate and broadens the spectral width of stop bands near the helium and oxygen gyrofrequencies. Furthermore, an increasing oxygen ion concentration notably reduces the saturation amplitude of EMIC waves in cases where the helium band is dominant, while cases with a dominant hydrogen band remain unaffected. Cold ions are heated during wave excitation, and cold helium ions are heated to keV energy, more significantly than cold protons and oxygen ions. With cold oxygen ion concentration increasing, cold helium ions take longer time to be heated to keV energy. These results offer insights into how cold plasma modifies the spectral properties and amplitudes of EMIC waves, shedding light on energy transfer from hot protons to cold plasma through EMIC waves.