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.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Plasma Physics
- Pub Date:
- February 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S0022377817001015
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1712.06347
- Bibcode:
- 2018JPlPh..84a9004S
- Keywords:
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- plasma simulation;
- plasma waves;
- Physics - Plasma Physics;
- 82D10;
- 37J35;
- 37M05
- E-Print:
- 25 pages, 7 figures