Abstract
Purely adiabatic motion, as described at length in Chapter I, characterizes the dynamical problem in which the phases φ1, φ2, and φ3 are cyclic coordinates. These are the phases canonically conjugate to the fundamental action integrals J1= 2πm0 c|q|−1 M, J2=J, and J3=(q/c) Φ that identify the three adiabatic invariants M, J, and Φ of charged-particle motion. Strict conservation of M, J, and Φ is only a kinematical ideal that provides the framework for understanding radiation-belt dynamics, and geophysically interesting dynamical phenomena involve violation of one or more of the invariants. Violation of an adiabatic invariant occurs in the presence of forces that vary on so short a spatial or temporal scale that particles having the same three adiabatic invariants (but different phases) respond inequivalently.
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© 1974 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg
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Schulz, M., Lanzerotti, L.J. (1974). Pitch-Angle Diffusion. In: Particle Diffusion in the Radiation Belts. Physics and Chemistry in Space, vol 7. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65675-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65675-0_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-65677-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-65675-0
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