
doi: 10.1086/307315
The spatial transport of charged particles, in a turbulence of slab Alfven waves and isotropic fast magnetosonic waves, is determined by the pitch angle scattering of these particles. For pitch angle cosines μ larger than the Alfven speed over the particle speed, this pitch angle scattering is provided by either gyroresonance with the Alfven waves or transit-time damping (TTD) with the fast-mode component of the spectrum. For smaller pitch angle cosines, however, there is no TTD, and if the particle rigidity is less than 1 GV, in the solar wind there is no gyroresonance possible either. A new nonresonant process is presented here that very efficiently scatters the particles through μ=0 and is due to waves that cannot be in gyroresonance with the particles. The contributions to the particles' mean free path, of this nonresonant scattering process as well as of the TTD and gyroresonant ones, are calculated. The application to low-energy cosmic rays in the solar wind leads to the following conclusions. Below 102-103 MV, the nonresonant process dominates the gyroresonant one at large pitch angles. Below 0.1-1 MV, the slowest scattering does not occur any longer at large pitch angles but at small ones, via TTD, with a relatively high and flat curve of mean free path versus rigidity. The resulting mean free path, between 10-2 and 105 MV, gives very reasonable fits for the observational data, which diversity could be explained by slight modifications of the turbulence parameters.
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