Chaos and nonlinear dynamics of single‐particle orbits in a magnetotaillike magnetic field

Abstract

The properties of charged‐particle motion in Hamiltonian dynamics are studied in a magnetotaillike magnetic field configuration. It is shown by numerical integration of the equation of motion that the system is generally nonintegrable and that the particle motion can be classified into three distinct types of orbits: bounded integrable orbits, unbounded stochastic orbits, and unbounded transient orbits. It is also shown that different regions of the phase space exhibit qualitatively different responses to external influences. The concept of “differential memory” in single‐particle distributions is proposed. Physical implications for the dynamical properties of the magnetotail plasmas and the possible generation of non‐Maxwellian features in the distribution function are discussed.