Analytical treatment of particle motion in circularly polarized slab-mode wave fields
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Authors
Schreiner, Cedric
Spanier, Felix
Vainio, Rami
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Cambridge Univ Press
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
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Citation
Schreiner, C. et al. 2018. Analytical treatment of particle motion in circularly polarized slab-mode wave fields. Journal of plasma physics, 84(1): Article no 905840104. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022377817001015]