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Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 031102 (2005) [4 pages]

Gyroresonant Surfing Acceleration

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Yasuhiro Kuramitsu* and Vladimir Krasnoselskikh
Laboratoire Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement, CNRS, 45071 Orléans, France

Received 25 February 2004; published 25 January 2005

We discuss a new acceleration or energization mechanism of charged particles in space and astrophysical plasmas. In the presence of an electrostatic potential gradient and a circularly polarized electromagnetic monochromatic wave, particles are accelerated efficiently by keeping cyclotron resonance with the wave due to the electrostatic dragging force. In addition, particles can propagate against the electrostatic potential even if they have smaller parallel energy. This mechanism is potentially widely applicable, in terms of particle acceleration and transport, to various space and astrophysical phenomena, such as shock environment and short-large amplitude magnetic structures. We introduce the basic physical process of the acceleration or energization mechanism theoretically and numerically.

© 2005 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.031102
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.031102
PACS:
96.50.Pw, 52.20.Dq, 52.25.Fi, 96.40.–z

*Electronic address: ykuramit@cnrs-orleans.fr