Quasilinear theory of collisionless Fermi acceleration in a multicusp magnetic confinement geometry

Particle motion in a cylindrical multiple-cusp magnetic field configuration is shown to be highly (though not completely) chaotic, as expected by analogy with the Sinai billiard. This provides a collisionless, linear mechanism for phase randomization during monochromatic wave heating. A general quasilinear theory of collisionless energy diffusion is developed for particles with a Hamiltonian of the form H₀+H₁, motion in the unperturbed Hamiltonian H₀ being assumed chaotic, while the perturbation H₁ can be coherent (i.e., not stochastic). For the multicusp geometry, two heating mechanisms are identified-cyclotron resonance heating of particles temporarily mirrortrapped in the cusps, and nonresonant heating of nonadiabatically reflected particles (the majority). An analytically solvable model leads to an expression for a transit-time correction factor, exponentially decreasing with increasing frequency. The theory is illustrated using the geometry of a typical laboratory experiment.