Abstract
The study is devoted to ion dynamics in bifurcated current sheets with a two-peak current-density distribution observed in the Earth’s magnetotail and solar wind. The ion motion is described by a Hamiltonian system with two degrees of freedom. The presence of a small parameter κ characterizing the ratio between the amplitudes of the normal and tangential magnetic field components allows one to separate variables into fast and slow ones and introduce the quasi-adiabatic invariant of motion Iz. Conservation of this invariant makes it possible to analytically describe the dynamics of charged particles. Deviations of the particle dynamics from the quasi-adiabatic one, which are caused by the nonconservation of the quasi-adiabatic invariant, are investigated. The jump of the invariant ΔIz is shown to depend on the small parameter according to the power-law ΔIz ∼ κh, where the exponent h varies between unity and 3/4, depending on the level of current sheet bifurcation. The obtained dependence of ΔIz on κ coincides with analytic expressions in the limiting cases of nonbifurcated and completely bifurcated current sheets.
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