Determining the Dominant Acceleration Mechanism during Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in Large-scale Systems

Guo, Fan and Li, Xiaocan and Daughton, William and Kilian, Patrick and Li, Hui and Liu, Yi-Hsin and Yan, Wangcheng and Ma, Dylan (2019) Determining the Dominant Acceleration Mechanism during Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in Large-scale Systems. The Astrophysical Journal, 879 (2). L23. ISSN 2041-8213

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Abstract

While a growing body of research indicates that relativistic magnetic reconnection is a prodigious source of particle acceleration in high-energy astrophysical systems, the dominant acceleration mechanism remains controversial. Using a combination of fully kinetic simulations and theoretical analysis, we demonstrate that Fermi-type acceleration within the large-scale motional electric fields dominates over direct acceleration from non-ideal electric fields within small-scale diffusion regions. This result has profound implications for modeling particle acceleration in large-scale astrophysical problems, as it opens up the possibility of modeling the energetic spectra without resolving microscopic diffusion regions.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: Open Research Librarians > Physics and Astronomy
Depositing User: Unnamed user with email support@open.researchlibrarians.com
Date Deposited: 05 Jun 2023 06:11
Last Modified: 27 Jan 2024 04:22
URI: http://stm.e4journal.com/id/eprint/1074

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