Analytical theory of a self-consistent magnetopause in a collisionless plasma

An analytical model of a quasi-stationary current sheet that separates the regions of weakly and strongly magnetized collisionless plasma and describes the magnetopause formed by the solar (stellar) wind is presented. The model significantly expands the scope of a magnetohydrodynamic approach and is based on the consistent kinetic description of the inhomogeneous anisotropic distribution functions of electrons and ions with different effective temperatures. Its detailed analysis for the shifted Maxwell, kappa and other particle distributions with different anisotropy degrees is carried out. A qualitative comparison of the predicted and observed spatial current profiles in the Earth's magnetopause is given.