Fig. 2: Three classes of particle orbits and their effective potentials.
From: Equilibrium selection via current sheet relaxation and guide field amplification
Effective potentials χ of the a non-crossing (NC) orbit class, b double-well (DW) orbit class, c and single-well (SW) orbit class. The blue particle in b belongs to NC but is plotted to show the NC → DW transition. d–f Particle orbits in the \(\bar{x}-\bar{z}\) plane respectively belonging to the three classes in a–c. Local, approximate directions of the magnetic field are represented by dots, crosses, and arrows. The exact magnetic field profile is \({{{{{{{\bf{B}}}}}}}}={B}_{0}\left(\hat{y}\tanh \bar{x}+0.15\hat{z}\right)\). Three particles are plotted for each class and are labeled by the blue, cyan, and red colors. Each particle’s energy is represented by its corresponding color in a–c. g–i Particle orbits in the \(\bar{x}-\bar{y}\) plane.
