Transport of and radiation production by transrelativistic and nonrelativistic particles moving through sub-Larmor-scale electromagnetic turbulence

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2015 Sep;92(3):033104. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.92.033104. Epub 2015 Sep 14.

Abstract

Plasmas with electromagnetic fields turbulent at sub-Larmor scales are a feature of a wide variety of high-energy-density environments and are essential to the description of many astrophysical and laboratory plasma phenomena. Radiation from particles, whether they are relativistic or nonrelativistic, moving through small-scale magnetic turbulence has spectral characteristics distinct from both synchrotron and cyclotron radiation. The radiation, carrying information on the statistical properties of the magnetic turbulence, is also intimately related to the particle diffusive transport. We have investigated, both theoretically and numerically, the transport of nonrelativistic and trans-relativistic particles in plasmas with high-amplitude isotropic sub-Larmor-scale magnetic turbulence, and its relation to the spectra of radiation simultaneously produced by these particles. Consequently, the diffusive and radiative properties of plasmas turbulent on sub-Larmor scales may serve as a powerful tool to diagnosis laboratory and astrophysical plasmas.