Unified description of kappa-type velocity distributions.

Abstract

An extension of Maxwell's original prescription for an ideal gas is adopted to derive a broad class of kappa-type velocity distributions, encompassing both fat and short-tailed forms. Within this general framework, a physically consistent fat-tailed kappa distribution is identified that accurately fits recent suprathermal data. In particular, a kinetic physical temperature T emerges naturally from the model, eliminating the need to invoke an effective temperature T_{κℓ}, as is commonly done in the literature. Finally, it is argued that only a particular value of ℓ ensures a satisfactory fit to the data when the physical kinetic temperature is employed.