Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 1: Astrophysik

EP 1.3: Talk

Monday, March 17, 2014, 14:45–15:00, DO24 1.103

Cosmic-ray pitch-angle scattering and isotropization — •Robert C. Tautz — Technische Universität Berlin

Spacecraft observations have revealed the necessity to refine the modeling of the transport of charged energetic particles to allow for phase-space distributions that are strongly pitch-angle anisotropic, which cannot be properly accounted for by the diffusion approximation. Central to such a modeling refinement is the determination of the pitch-angle diffusion coefficient that occurs in the Fokker-Planck transport equation and is frequently used to determine the parallel mean-free path. In addition, the process of pitch-angle isotropization is important for many applications ranging from diffusive shock acceleration to large-scale cosmic-ray transport. In the talk, both a systematic comparison and new results are shown from analytical predictions of the Fokker-Planck coefficient of pitch-angle scattering and from numerical test-particle simulations.