Superfast ion scattering by solar wind discontinuities.

Abstract

Large-amplitude fluctuations of the solar wind magnetic field can scatter energetic ions. One of the main contributions to these fluctuations is provided by solar wind discontinuities, i.e., rapid rotations of the magnetic field. This study shows that the internal configuration of such discontinuities plays a crucial role in energetic ion scattering in pitch angles. Kinetic-scale discontinuities accomplish very fast ion pitch-angle scattering. The main mechanism of such pitch-angle scattering is the adiabatic invariant destruction due to separatrix crossings in the phase space. We demonstrate that efficiency of this scattering does not depend on the magnetic field component across the discontinuity surface, i.e., both rotational and almost tangential discontinuities scatter energetic ions with the same efficiency. We also examine how the strong scattering effect depends on the deviations of the discontinuity magnetic field from the force-free one.