Global Dynamics of Charged Dust Particles in Planetary Magnetospheres

Abstract

We study the global stability of charged dust grains orbiting an axisymmetric planet. The corotating magnetic field and induced electric field are described in an inertial frame using the magnetic stream function and a two-dimensional effective potential U e , parametrized by the conserved angular momentum p f . Stable equilibria form the centers of complex potential wells, so that a particle which loses local stability can still be trapped globally. Applying the results to Saturn, we find that nonequatorial "halo" orbits are dominated by positively charged grains. PACS numbers: 96.30.Wr, 45.20.Jj, 96.35.Kx

Numerical studies of charged particles in a magnetic field: Mars application

“…It has been assumed that the particles are moving in the vacuum and there is no influence from other external forces (like electric fields, atmospheric wind or the interaction with the solar wind). According to previous studies [2,23], the constants of the numerical scheme used hereafter are summarized in the Table 3. Figure 5 but for a proton and an alpha particle, respectively.…”

Off-equatorial circular orbits in magnetic fields of compact objects

“…Such studies point out the existence of dust grains stable offequatorial circular orbits of constant radius and latitude, the so-called stable halo orbits. As was shown by Howard et al (1999), the orbits take place near, e.g., Saturn.…”

“…Such studies point out the existence of dust grains stable offequatorial circular orbits of constant radius and latitude, the so-called stable halo orbits. As was shown by Howard et al (1999), the orbits take place near, e.g., Saturn.We focused on the halo orbits existence in strong gravitational fields, i.e., in the vicinity of three qualitatively different kinds of compact objects, endowed with a dipole-type magnetic field. These are a neutron star, a Schwarzschild black hole with a current loop, and a Kerr-Newman black hole or naked singularity.…”

Nonkeplerian dust dynamics at Saturn

“…In a pair of recent papers [Howard et al, 1999[Howard et al, , 2000 we derived analytic equilibrium and stability conditions for charged dust grains orbiting Saturn. This theory extended previous work [Northrop and Hill, 1982 Corresponding contour plots of a,(p,z) for dielectric grains based on eqs (9-11) and encompassing the region above and below the E-Ring are shown in Fig.…”