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Mass‐dependent effects in ion conic production: The role of parallel electric fields
Author(s) -
Lund E. J.,
Möbius E.,
Ergun R. E.,
Carlson C. W.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1999gl003679
Subject(s) - electric field , ion , conic section , particle acceleration , physics , atomic physics , computational physics , field (mathematics) , acceleration , classical mechanics , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics
Previous observational studies indicate that the energies of different ion species in ion conics produced by broad‐band extremely low frequency (BBELF) waves are nearly equal. In contrast, theoretical studies predict a definite preferential acceleration for heavy ions over lighter ions. We show that this discrepancy can be resolved if a downward parallel electric field is present in the heating region: for a sufficiently strong electric field ions of different masses acquire approximately the same energy in escaping the trapping region.