On the Turbulent Reduction of Drifts for Solar Energetic Particles

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding how magnetic turbulence suppresses particle drifts in solar energetic particle transport, showing that diffusion dominates over drift effects in the inner heliosphere.

Contribution

It introduces a turbulence-dependent drift reduction function with pitch-angle dependence and assesses its impact using advanced SEP transport simulations.

Findings

Turbulent diffusion significantly reduces particle drifts in the inner heliosphere.

Cross-field diffusion has a greater impact on SEP transport than drifts under realistic conditions.

The derived drift reduction factors depend on turbulence levels and particle pitch angles.

Abstract

Particle drifts perpendicular to the background magnetic field have been proposed by some authors as an explanation for the very efficient perpendicular transport of solar energetic particles (SEPs). This process, however, competes with perpendicular diffusion caused by magnetic turbulence, which can also disrupt the drift patterns and reduce the efficiency of drift effects. The latter phenomenon is well known in cosmic ray studies, but not yet considered in SEP models. Additionally, SEP models which do not include drifts, especially for electrons, use turbulent drift reduction as a justification of this omission, without critically evaluating or testing this assumption. This article presents the first theoretical step for a theory of drift suppression in SEP transport. This is done by deriving the turbulence-dependent drift reduction function with a pitch-angle dependence, as applicable for anisotropic particle distributions, and by investigating to what extent drifts will be reduced in the inner heliosphere for realistic turbulence conditions and different pitch-angle dependencies of the perpendicular diffusion coefficient. The influence of the derived turbulent drift reduction factors on the transport of SEPs are tested, using a state-of-the-art SEP transport code, for several expressions of theoretically-derived perpendicular diffusion coefficients. It is found, for realistic turbulence conditions in the inner heliosphere, that cross-field diffusion will have the largest influence on the perpendicular transport of SEPs, as opposed to particle drifts.