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Issue A&A
Volume 483, Number 2, May IV 2008
Page(s) 371 - 381
Section Astrophysical processes
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20079099
Published online 26 March 2008



A&A 483, 371-381 (2008)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20079099

Pitch-angle scattering in pure two-dimensional and two-component turbulence

A. Shalchi1, J. W. Bieber2, and W. H. Matthaeus2

1  Institut für Theoretische Physik, Lehrstuhl IV: Weltraum- und Astrophysik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
    e-mail: andreasm4@yahoo.com
2  Bartol Research Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA

(Received 19 November 2007 / Accepted 25 February 2008)

Abstract
Aims. It has been demonstrated that quasilinear theory is inappropriate for describing pitch-angle scattering and parallel spatial diffusion, if a turbulence model with a strong two-dimensional component is assumed. We aim to revisit this problem using a more systematic and reliable approach.
Methods. We consider particle transport in pure two-dimensional turbulence, by using a vector-potential description of pitch-angle scattering.
Results. It is demonstrated that pitch-angle scattering in pure two-dimensional turbulence behaves subdiffusively and, thus, parallel scattering is expected to behave superdiffusively. In the slab/2D composite model, the total pitch-angle Fokker-Planck coefficient reaches the slab limit when very long timescales are considered.


Key words: diffusion -- turbulence -- scattering



© ESO 2008


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