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Combined Scattering of Radiation Belt Electrons Caused by Landau and Bounce Resonant Interactions With Magnetosonic Waves
Author(s) -
Fu Song,
Ni Binbin,
Zhou Ruoxian,
Cao Xing,
Gu Xudong
Publication year - 2019
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 - 10.1029/2019gl084438
Subject(s) - physics , electron , scattering , test particle , landau damping , pitch angle , van allen radiation belt , resonance (particle physics) , plasmasphere , landau quantization , diffusion , computational physics , atomic physics , quantum electrodynamics , magnetosphere , classical mechanics , magnetic field , optics , geophysics , quantum mechanics
We develop a full relativistic test particle code to model the combined electron scattering effect of Landau and bounce resonances with magnetosonic waves. Test particle simulations of magnetosonic wave‐electron interactions indicate that the two resonances coexist to affect radiation belt electrons at different energies and pitch angles, and the resultant combined pitch angle scattering and energy diffusion can reach the rates of ~10 −4 and ~10 ‐5 s, respectively, for electrons ~40–500 keV at pitch angles ~ 70 ° – 80° for the given wave model (~200 pT) inside the plasmapause at L = 4.5. Comparisons with the quasi‐linear theory results show that the test particle combined scattering rates are generally an order of magnitude weaker, possibly because the electrons are moved out of the Landau resonance by the advective effect of the bounce resonance. Our investigation demonstrates that the Landau and bounce resonances with magnetosonic waves cannot be treated independently or additively in terms of quasi‐linear theory to simulate the associated radiation belt electron dynamics.