Perpendicular diffusion of energetic particles: Numerical test of the theorem on reduced dimensionality

A fundamental statement in diffusion theory is provided by the so-called theorem on reduced dimensionality. The latter theorem is saying that if the dimensionality of the turbulence is reduced, charged particles are tied to a single magnetic field line. If there is pitch-angle scattering and therewith parallel diffusion, this usually means that perpendicular transport is subdiffusive. Subdiffusive transport was found in numerous simulations for slab turbulence. However, it was unclear whether the theorem is valid for other models with reduced dimensionality such as the two-dimensional model. In the current paper, we simultaneously trace magnetic field lines and energetic particles and we compute the distance between the particle and the initial field line. We confirm the aforementioned theorem for slab turbulence but we cannot confirm it for two-dimensional turbulence. We also show that particles are not tied to field lines for two-component turbulence. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.