Analytical treatment of particle motion in circularly polarized slab-mode wave fields
Abstract
Wave–particle interaction is a key process in particle diffusion in collisionless plasmas.
We look into the interaction of single plasma waves with individual particles and
discuss under which circumstances this is a chaotic process, leading to diffusion.
We derive the equations of motion for a particle in the fields of a magnetostatic,
circularly polarized, monochromatic wave and show that no chaotic particle motion
can arise under such circumstances. A novel and exact analytic solution for the
equations is presented. Additional plasma waves lead to a breakdown of the analytic
solution and chaotic particle trajectories become possible. We demonstrate this effect
by considering a linearly polarized, monochromatic wave, which can be seen as the
superposition of two circularly polarized waves. Test particle simulations are provided
to illustrate and expand our analytical considerations
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/26766https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022377817001015
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-plasma-physics/article/analytical-treatment-of-particle-motion-in-circularly-polarized-slabmode-wave-fields/90F1007351EEF0C224564C13EF0B4B41