Path integral approach for electron transport in disturbed magnetic field lines

Abstract

A path integral method is developed to investigate statistical property of an electron transport described as a Langevin equation in a statically disturbed magnetic field line structure; especially a transition probability of electrons strongly tied to field lines is considered. The path integral method has advantages that (1) it does not include intrinsically a growing numerical error of an orbit, which is caused by evolution of the Langevin equation under a finite calculation accuracy in a chaotic field line structure, and (2) it gives a method of understanding the qualitative content of the Langevin equation and assists to expect statistical property of the transport. Monte Carlo calculations of the electron distributions under both effects of chaotic field lines and collisions are demonstrated to comprehend the above advantages through some examples. The mathematical techniques are useful to study statistical properties of various phenomena described as Langevin equations in general. By using parallel generators of random numbers, the Monte Carlo scheme to calculate a transition probability can be suitable for a parallel computation.