Acceleration of Ring Current Protons Driven by Magnetosonic Waves: Comparisons of Test Particle Simulations with Quasilinear Calculations

Fast Magnetosonic Waves Driven by Gravitational Waves

The propagation of a gravitational wave (GW) through a magnetized plasma is considered. In particular, we study the excitation of fast magnetosonic waves (MSW) by a gravitational wave, using the linearized general-relativistic hydromagnetic equations. We derive the dispersion relation for the plasma, treating the gravitational wave as a perturbation in a Minkowski background space-time. We show...

Cosmic ray acceleration by fast magnetosonic waves

Recently, Schlickeiser and Miller have calculated anew the acceleration rate of cosmic rays by fast magnetosonic plasma waves in a small-beta plasma, using a linear dispersion relation. They found that the transit-time damping of fast mode waves provides the dominant contribution to the stochastic acceleration rate of cosmic ray particles, both, in pure fast mode wave turbulence as well as in a...

Interaction of Energetic Ring Current Protons with Magnetospheric Hydromagnetic Waves

Particle acceleration by electromagnetic waves.

We consider the symmetry in the interaction of photons and electrons, which has led to a common description of electron and photon accelerations; effects such as photon Landau damping arise naturally from such a treatment. Intense electromagnetic waves can act as a photon mirror to charged particles. The subsequent acceleration is equivalent to the photon pulse accelerating electrons. During th...

Fast magnetosonic waves launched by transient, current sheet reconnection

A model is investigated describing the resistive dissipation of a finite, two-dimensional current sheet subject to suddenly enhanced resistivity. The resistivity rapidly diffuses the current to a distance where it couples to fast magnetosonic modes. The current then propagates away as a sheath moving at the local Alfvén speed. A current density peak remains at the X-point producing a steady ele...