Particle Acceleration in the Magnetosphere

Physics – Plasma Physics

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

The acceleration of charged particles to suprathermal energies is a common phenomenon accompanying dynamic reconfigurations of plasma and field configurations in the laboratory as well as in space and astrophysics. A crucial feature of many such reconfiguration processes is the occurrence of magnetic reconnection, involving a local breakdown of ideal MHD constraints, associated with an electric field in regions of very low magnetic field strength or the occurrence of electric fields with a component along the magnetic field. This property is important for the possibility of particle acceleration. In addition, the dynamically changing highly nonuniform magnetic fields typically also permit particle acceleration in the form of betatron or Fermi acceleration. MHD simulations of the dynamic evolution of the Earth's magnetotail have demonstrated that the occurrence of reconnection in the near tail also leads to a ``collapse" or ``dipolarization" of the magnetic field in the inner tail, which provides a suitable scenario for betatron or Fermi acceleration. Test particle studies of ion and electron orbits in such dynamically evolving fields are used to investigate the role of these acceleration processes in the context of magnetospheric substorms. The studies are extended to scenarios more relevant for eruptive processes in the solar corona, in particular, solar flares. The presentation includes studies of characteristic orbits, source regions, spatial characteristics, and energy dependence. For the Earth's magnetosphere, a comparison with observations of energetic particles from geosynchronous orbit is also provided.

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