Particle Trapping in Axisymmetric Electron Holes

Abstract

AbstractElectron orbits are calculated in solitary two‐dimensional axisymmetric electrostatic potential structures, typical of plasma electron holes, in order to establish the conditions for the particles to remain trapped. Analytic calculations of the evolution of the parallel energy caused by the perturbing radial electric field (breaking magnetic moment invariance) are shown to agree well with full numerical orbit integration Poincaré plots. The predominant mechanism of detrapping is resonance between the gyrofrequency in the parallel magnetic field and harmonics of the parallel bounce frequency. A region of phase space adjacent to the trapped‐passing boundary in parallel energy is generally stochastic because of island overlap of different harmonics, but except for very strong radial electric field perturbation, more deeply trapped orbits have well‐defined islands and are permanently confined. A simple universal quantitative algorithm is given, and its results plotted as a function of magnetic field strength and hole radial scale length, determining the phase space volume available to sustain the electron hole by depression of the permanently trapped distribution function.