Simulations Of Particle Acceleration Research Articles

Computer simulation of particle acceleration and wave excitation by electron beam injection from space shuttle

An interesting phenomenon of particle acceleration was discovered by the recent SEPAC electron beam experiment onboard the Space Shuttle/Spacelab 1. We present here our results of particle simulation study on the particle acceleration and related wave excitation caused by the injection of an electron beam from the Space Shuttle. We found that a strong acceleration of electrons is caused by a pulsive LHR wave packet locally excited by the injection of the electron beam. The simulation shows that the acceleration takes place in the perpendicular direction to the Earth's magnetic field. This agrees well with the experimental results and gives its reasonable interpretation.