Observation of particle acceleration in laboratory magnetosphere

Abstract

The self-organization of magnetospheric plasma is brought about by inward diffusion of magnetized particles. Not only creating a density gradient toward the center of a dipole magnetic field, the inward diffusion also accelerates particles and provides a planetary radiation belt with high energy particles. Here, we report the first experimental observation of a 'laboratory radiation belt' created in the Ring Trap 1 (RT-1) device. By spectroscopic measurement, we found an appreciable anisotropy in the ion temperature, proving the betatron acceleration mechanism which heats particles in the perpendicular direction with respect to the magnetic field when particles move inward. The energy balance model including the heating mechanism explains the observed ion temperature profile.

References in corpus (1)

• Self-organization in foliated phase space: Construction of a scale hierarchy by adiabatic invariants of magnetized particles

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Self-Organization and Heating by Inward Diffusion in Magnetospheric Plasmas
• Scattering Theory in Noncanonical Phase Space: A Drift-Kinetic Collision Operator for Weakly Collisional Plasmas
• Anisotropy in broad component of H$\alpha$ line in the magnetospheric device RT-1
• Inward Diffusion and Acceleration of Particles Driven by Turbulent Fluctuations in Magnetosphere
• Kinetic construction of the high-beta anisotropic-pressure equilibrium in the magnetosphere