We study dynamics of charged particle in current sheets with magnetic fluctuations. We use the adiabatic theory to describe the nonperturbed charged particle motion and show that magnetic
field fluctuations destroy the adiabatic invariant. We demonstrate that the evolution of particle adiabatic invariant's distribution is described by a diffusion equation and derive analytical estimates of the rate of adiabatic invariant's diffusion. This rate is proportional to power density of magnetic
field fluctuations. We compare analytical estimates with numerical simulations. We show that
adiabatic invariant diffusion results in transient particles trapping in the current sheet. For magnetic field fluctuation amplitude few times larger than a normal magnetic field component, more than
50% of transient particles become trapped. We discuss the possible consequences of destruction of adiabaticity of the charged particle motion on the state of the current sheets.
Funding
The work was supported by the Russian Scientic Foundation, Project No.
14-12-00824 (A.V.A. and A.I.N.). This material is based upon work supported
by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CMMI-1362782 (D.L.V.).
History
School
Science
Department
Mathematical Sciences
Published in
Physical Review E - Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics
Volume
93
Citation
ARTEMYEV, A.V. ...et al., 2016. Charged particle dynamics in turbulent current sheet. Physical Review E, 93, 053207.
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Acceptance date
2016-05-10
Publication date
2016
Notes
This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review E and the definitive published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.93.053207