On the cross-field diffusion of ions in one- and two-dimensional hybrid simulations of collisionless shocks

Abstract

It can be demonstrated analytically that under certain geometries used in numerical simulations of collisionless shocks in which there is at least one ignorable spatial coordinate, the transport of particles across the magnetic field is essentially zero. This notion is tested using one- and two-dimensional hybrid simulations (kinetic ions/ fluid electrons). We find, as the theorem predicts, the particles treated kinetically are tied to the same field line on which they start.