Diffusive scattering of energetic electrons by intense whistler-mode waves in an inhomogeneous plasma

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this recordElectron resonant interactions with electromagnetic whistler-mode waves play an important role in electron flux dynamics in various space plasma systems: planetary radiation belts, bow shocks, solar wind, and magnetic reconnection regions. Two key wave characteristics determining the regime of wave-particle interactions are the wave intensity and the wave coherency. The classical quasi-linear diffusion approach describes well the electron diffusion by incoherent and low-amplitude waves, whereas the nonlinear resonant models describe electron phase bunching and trapping by highly coherent intense waves. This study is devoted to the investigation of the regime of electron resonant interactions with incoherent but intense waves. Although this regime is characterized by electron diffusion, we show that diffusion rates scale linearly with the wave amplitude, 1. Introduction D ∝ Bw, in contrast to the quasi-linear diffusion scaling DQL ∝ B2 w. Using observed wave amplitude distributions, we demonstrate that the quasi-linear diffusion model significantly overestimates electron scattering by incoherent, but intense whistler-mode waves. We discuss obtained results in context of simulations of long-term electron flux dynamics in the space plasma systems.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Russian Science FoundationNAS