Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Nov 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aipc.1183...85w&link_type=abstract
SHOCK WAVES IN SPACE AND ASTROPHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS: 18th Annual International Astrophysics Conference. AIP Conference Proceedin
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmic Rays, Solar Wind, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Vlasov Equation, Transport Processes, Cosmic Rays, Particle Emission, Solar Wind, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Elementary Processes In Plasmas, Transport Properties
Scientific paper
Starting from the Vlasov or Boltzmann equation for cosmic rays in a random and regular magnetic field, we introduce guiding center coordinates and transform the velocity to a frame moving at the electric field drift velocity. The resultant equation is written in terms of the parallel and perpendicular momentum and gyro-phase of the particle, and describes spatial particle transport in guiding center coordinates. Using the drift ordering in which the gyro-scale and gyro-period are assumed short compared to the background flow length and time scales, and averaging over the gyro-phase gives the drift kinetic equation in which the adiabatic moment and total particle energy in the inertial frame are used to describe the momentum and energy of the particle. If the parallel electric field is small, the adiabatic moment of the particles is conserved to lowest order in the drift ordering. The resultant drift kinetic equation properly takes into account the energy changes of the particles due to drifts along the electric field, and betatron acceleration, but contains only the lowest order approximation for the guiding center drift velocity to describe the spatial advection of the particles. A further transformation of variables, in which the particle momentum and pitch angle are specified in the local fluid frame, gives the focussed transport equation derived by Skilling [1] to describe particle transport in a moving plasma medium, such as the solar wind. The connections to previous derivations of the Skilling's pitch angle focussed transport equation are discussed.
le Roux Jakobus A.
Webb Gary M.
Zank Gary P.
No associations
LandOfFree
Drift Kinetic Theory and Cosmic Rays does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Drift Kinetic Theory and Cosmic Rays, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Drift Kinetic Theory and Cosmic Rays will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1535669