First-Principles Fermi Acceleration in Magnetized Turbulence

Phys Rev Lett. 2022 Nov 18;129(21):215101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.215101.

Abstract

This Letter provides a concrete implementation of Fermi's model of particle acceleration in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, connecting the rate of energization to the gradients of the velocity of magnetic field lines, which it characterizes within a multifractal picture of turbulence intermittency. It then derives a transport equation in momentum space for the distribution function. This description is shown to be substantiated by a large-scale numerical simulation of strong MHD turbulence. The present general framework can be used to model particle acceleration in a variety of environments.