Magnetic Merging in a Collisionless Plasma,
Abstract
The term 'magnetic merging' refers here to a process whereby magnetic energy is dissipated in a region of magnetic-field reversal imbedded in a plasma, resulting in acceleration of the charged particles of the plasma. Merging has been widely discussed as a mechanism for particle acceleration in collisionless plasmas in space. In spite of the usefullness of the merging concept, however, there is no generally-accepted theory to describe the physics of the merging process. Part of this defficulty lies in the fact that the most important processes occur on such a small length scale that the usual description of the plasma as a classical fluid is not strictly valid. In this paper the author examines the merging phenomenon in terms of individual charged-particle dynamics, explicitly avoiding the use of the fluid approximation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1975
- Accession Number
- ADA006408
Entities
People
- Thomas W. Hill
Organizations
- Rice University