Space Physics Seminar spring-2014

Resonant interactions between energetic electrons and whistler mode waves play an essential role in controlling the dynamic variability of the Earth’s natural radiation belts, which is a topic of extreme interest at the moment. Although the theory describing resonant wave-particle interaction has been present for several decades, it has not been hitherto tested in a controlled laboratory setting. In this talk, I will describe the first laboratory experiment to directly detect resonant pitch angle scattering of energetic (?keV) electrons due to whistler mode waves, which was conducted in UCLA's Large Plasma Device. I will first review the basic ideas behind wave-particle resonant interactions, and show that the whistler mode wave deflects energetic electrons at precisely the predicted resonant energy, and discus the effect of varying both the maximum beam energy, and the wave frequency.