The Trajectory Method and the Description of Charged Particles Dynamics in the Current Sheet Magnetic Field Geometry.
Abstract
The current sheets (CSs) in space plasma appear as fundamental objects which play an important role in structuring and dynamical evolution of the global magnetic environments of astrophysical and space objects. The physical nature of the current sheet consists in specific motion of the current-creating particles which has a strong non-linear character. By this, the self-consistent description of dynamics of the current-creating particles in CS is one of the key challenging tasks of the space plasma physics. The collisionless specifics of the typical space plasma flow, e.g. that of the solar wind (or the Earth magnetosphere), justifies a one-particle approach to the analysis of the dynamics of the current-creating particles in a CS. It consists in consideration of a single particle motion in an inhomogeneous magnetic field, based on the analysis of equation of motion in Cartesian coordinates. By this, particle dynamics, defined by the equation of motion, can be expressed in terms of angular variables (pitch-angle and the gyrating phase), which are specifically connected to each other along the particle trajectory in a local coordinate system related to the magnetic field. The analysis of the angular variables enables finding of easy and comprehensive solutions for a number of elementary problems which constitute the background for more complex natural cases in space physics. This approach also allows obtaining of a set of the self-consistent CS-type solutions for different geometries of the magnetic field.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFMSM11D2333S
- Keywords:
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- 2723 Magnetic reconnection;
- MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS;
- 2724 Magnetopause and boundary layers;
- MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS;
- 7845 Particle acceleration;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS;
- 7846 Plasma energization;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS