Electron acceleration by Z-mode and whistler-mode waves

Abstract

We carried out a series of particle simulations to study electron acceleration by Z-mode and whistler-mode waves generated by an electron ring distribution. The electron ring distribution leads to excitations of X-mode waves mainly in the perpendicular direction, Z-mode waves in the perpendicular and parallel directions, and whistler-mode waves mainly in the parallel direction. The parallel Z- and whistler-mode waves can lead to an effective acceleration of ring electrons. The electron acceleration is mainly determined by the wave amplitude and phase velocity, which in turn is affected by the ratio of electron plasma to cyclotron frequencies. For the initial kinetic energy ranging from 100 to 500 keV, the peak energy of the accelerated electrons is found to reach 2–8 times the initial kinetic energy. We further study the acceleration process by test-particle calculations in which electrons interact with one, two, or four waves. The electron trajectories in the one-wave case are simple diffusion curves. In the multi-wave cases, electrons are accelerated simultaneously by counter-propagating waves and can have a higher final energy.