Heuristic Description of Perpendicular Particle Transport in Turbulence with Super-diffusive Magnetic Field Lines

Abstract

Abstract Recently a heuristic description of collisionless perpendicular diffusion of energetic particles was presented. The latter approach describes the transport of energetic particles across a mean magnetic field based on simple physical arguments. Although this approach was developed with the intention to improve our understanding of perpendicular diffusion, this heuristic approach also provided some interesting quantitative results such as an explanation of the factor a 2 used in the past to balance out inaccuracies of systematic analytical theories. However, the aforementioned heuristic approach is based on the assumption that magnetic field lines become diffusive after overcoming the initial free-streaming regime. In the current paper we alter the heuristic approach to make it applicable for turbulence spectra leading to super-diffusive magnetic fields lines. It is argued that particle diffusion is still restored in the late time limit. In the high-energy limit this recovery of diffusion is based on a hybrid model in which particles move half ballistically and half diffusively in the parallel direction. Furthermore, this leads to the relation between perpendicular and parallel mean free paths of the energetic particles. This type of transport was obtained in the past from test-particle simulations as well as systematic analytical theories. In the current paper we present the first time an explanation of this behavior based on simple physical arguments.