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Titel |
Non-adiabatic electron behaviour due to short-scale electric field structures at collisionless shock waves |
VerfasserIn |
V. See, R. F. Cameron, S. J. Schwartz |
Medientyp |
Artikel
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Sprache |
Englisch
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ISSN |
0992-7689
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Digitales Dokument |
URL |
Erschienen |
In: Annales Geophysicae ; 31, no. 4 ; Nr. 31, no. 4 (2013-04-11), S.639-646 |
Datensatznummer |
250019021
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Publikation (Nr.) |
copernicus.org/angeo-31-639-2013.pdf |
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Zusammenfassung |
Under sufficiently high electric field gradients, electron behaviour within
exactly perpendicular shocks is unstable to the so-called trajectory
instability. We extend previous work paying special attention to short-scale,
high-amplitude structures as observed within the electric field profile. Via
test particle simulations, we show that such structures can cause the
electron distribution to heat in a manner that violates conservation of the
first adiabatic invariant. This is the case even if the overall shock width
is larger than the upstream electron gyroradius. The spatial distance over
which these structures occur therefore constitutes a new scale length relevant
to the shock heating problem. Furthermore, we find that the spatial location
of the short-scale structure is important in determining the total effect of
non-adiabatic behaviour – a result that has not been previously noted. |
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