Abstract
A steady-state distribution is obtained that approximately yields the observed plasma density profile of the inner Van Allen radiation belt. The model assumes a collisionless, magnetized plasma with zero electric field present. The inner Van Allen belt consists of a plasma comprising high-energy protons and relativistic electrons. The particle trajectories are obtained from the collisionless Lorentz Force equation for different initial distributions. The resulting steady-state distributions obtained after particles lost to the loss cone are eliminated and are used to generate the density profile. The distribution’s dependence on energy E and magnetic moment \(\mu \) is adjusted to make the density profile agree with observations. For a distribution that is a function of energy times a function of magnetic moment, the calculation leads to the desired type of density profile. The kinetic distribution and the type of density profile obtained are presented.
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References
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Maiti, S., Ramachandran, H. (2021). A 3D Kinetic Distribution that Yields Observed Plasma Density in the Inner Van Allen Belt. In: Behera, P.K., Bhatnagar, V., Shukla, P., Sinha, R. (eds) XXIII DAE High Energy Physics Symposium. DAEBRNS HEPS 2018 2018. Springer Proceedings in Physics, vol 261. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4408-2_158
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4408-2_158
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