Phase-Space Synchronization Driven by Moon-Magnetosphere Coupling in Gas Giants

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel phase-space synchronization model to explain rapid, localized particle loss in gas giant magnetospheres, challenging traditional diffusion-based explanations and emphasizing the role of phase synchronization.

Contribution

It develops a drift-kinetic, Kuramoto-like model that explains localized particle loss and refilling via phase synchronization, not diffusion, in planetary radiation belts.

Findings

Localized loss regions can synchronize particle distributions.

Synchronization explains rapid refilling of microsignatures.

The model provides a first-principles non-diffusive mechanism.

Abstract

We present a new theoretical framework to describe the rapid and spatially localized loss of energetic particles in planetary radiation belts, focusing on interactions between gas giant magnetospheres and their moons. Observations show that flux depletions--known as microsignatures--often refill on timescales comparable to a single drift period, which conflicts with traditional quasi-linear radial diffusion models that assume slow, gradual transport and predict refilling only over many drift periods. To resolve this inconsistency, we develop a drift-kinetic model that explicitly captures localized losses occurring on timescales similar to the azimuthal drift period. We demonstrate that such localized loss regions can synchronize the azimuthal Fourier modes of the particle distribution function, producing apparent refilling through phase-space synchronization rather than diffusion. The resulting governing equations are mathematically equivalent to a generalized Kuramoto model, widely used to describe synchronization phenomena. This framework provides a first-principles, non-diffusive explanation for the evolution of microsignatures near moons, highlighting synchronization as a fundamental yet overlooked mechanism in magnetized plasma environments.