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J. E. Howard, M. Horanyi, A. Juhasz (Univ. of Colorado)
Role of Magnetic Tilt in Jovian Dust Dynamics
The small (9.6o) tilt of Jupiter's magnetic field with respect to its spin axis can have a strong effect on the dynamics of smaller charged dust grains. We show that there is a sharp transition from regular to chaotic motion as the grain radius is reduced below a critical value, somewhat below 1 micron, depending on orbital radius and pitch angle. This transition is associated with variations in the canonical momentum p\phi produced by the deviations from axisymmetry caused by the magnetic tilt. For larger grains p\phi merely oscillates about a constant value so that the motion is quasi-two-dimensional, but for smaller grains these variations become chaotic leading to large orbital excursions. Implications for the size and composition of the jovian dust rings will be discussed. This work was supported by NSF Grant DMS-0209856.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: jhoward@colorado.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #4
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.