Abstract Details
Abstracts
Author: Charles P Swanson
Requested Type: Poster
Submitted: 2019-02-20 13:31:39
Co-authors: S.A.Cohen, A.H.Glasser
Contact Info:
Princeton Statellite Systems
6 Market Street
Plainsboro, NJ 08536
USA
Abstract Text:
We analyze a new mechanism for the creation and confinement of energetic electrons in a mirror-configuration plasma using numerical simulations and chaotic maps. A Fermi-Ulam-type process, driven by end-localized coherent electrostatic oscillations, provides axial acceleration while the natural non-adiabaticity of magnetic moment (mu) provides phase decorrelation and energy isotropization. Analysis of the natural change in the magnetic moment of an electron in a vacuum field yields a 2-D map, the Chirikov map, which shows that a mu-mobile population of particles can exist in magnetic mirrors that are neither passing nor absolutely trapped. Analysis of the bounce motion of a particle in a mirror with an electrostatic oscillation also yields a 2-D map, coincidentally isomorphic to the Chirikov map, which would appear to preclude the possibility of acceleration beyond a specific threshold energy. The coupling of these maps into a 4-D map allows the mu motion to circumvent this threshold and become accelerated to high energy. We calculate the expected energy distribution function, with a diffusive-loss model, to assume a Maxwellian shape. The theoretical predictions are compared with data from an experiment.
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