Efficiency of Acceleration

• The efficiency of a heat engine is easy to describe: e=W/Q1. The work produced for some amount of heat. We can also use a slightly modified definition by dividing by temperature, T: e=Sw/SQ

• We can now use these definitions to categorize the various acceleration mechanisms that have been proposed for radiation belts and cosmic rays.

  • Waves Very Low < 10-4
  • Reconnection Low < 10-3
  • Fermi I and II Medium < 10-1
  • Shocks Low < 10-3