New insight into the formation mechanism of the energetic particle reservoirs in the heliosphere

Abstract

ABSTRACT The concept of energetic particle reservoirs, essentially based on the assumption of the presence of outer reflecting boundaries/magnetic mirrors or diffusion barriers (deterministic) rather than on the effect of particle diffusive propagation (stochastic) in magnetic turbulence, has been used for decades to describe the space-extended decay phases of energetic particle events within the fields of space physics, solar physics, and plasma physics. Using five-dimensional time-dependent Fokker–Planck transport equation simulations, in this work, we demonstrate that the so-called particle reservoirs are naturally explained and quantitatively reproduced by diffusion processes in turbulent magnetic fields, without invoking the hypothesis of reflecting boundaries. Our results strongly suggest that the so-called reservoir (based on deterministic structure) should be renamed ‘flood’ (based on stochastic diffusion), which symbolizes an authentic shift in thinking and in pragmatic rationale for the studies of energetic particles and relevant plasma phenomena in heliophysics and in astrophysics.