The resonant interaction of relativistic electrons and whistler waves is an important mechanism of electron acceleration and scattering in the Earth radiation belts and other space plasma systems. For low amplitude waves, such an interaction is well described by the quasi-linear di?usion theory, whereas nonlinear resonant e?ects induced by high-amplitude waves are mostly investigated (analytically and numerically) using the test particle approach. In this paper, we develop a mapping technique for the description of this nonlinearresonant interaction. Using the Hamiltonian theory for resonant systems, we derive the main characteristics of electron transport in the phase space and combine these characteristics to construct the map. This map can be considered as a generalization of the classical Chirikov map for systems with nondi?usive particle transport and allows us to model the long-term evolution of the electron distribution function.
This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in Physics of Plasmas, 27 (4), 042902 and may be found at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.5144477.