Wave-particle-interaction in kinetic plasmas

Abstract

Resonant scattering of energetic protons off magnetic irregularities is the main process in cosmic ray diffusion. The typical theoretical description uses Alfvén waves in the low frequency limit. We demonstrate that the usage of Particle-in-Cell (PiC) simulations for particle scattering is feasible. The simulation of plasma waves is performed with the relativistic electromagnetic PiC code ACRONYM and the tracks of test particles are evaluated in order to study particle diffusion. Results for the low frequency limit are equivalent to those obtained with an MHD description, but only for high frequencies results can be obtained with reasonable effort. PiC codes have the potential to be a useful tool to study particle diffusion in kinetic turbulence