Effects of Multi-scale Coupling on Particle Acceleration and Energy Partition in Magnetic Reconnection
Abstract
The interplay between kinetic and macroscopic scales during magnetic reconnection is investigated using particle-in-cell simulations of magnetic island coalescence in the strongly-magnetized, relativistic pair plasma regime. For large system sizes, secondary current sheet formation and downstream turbulence driven by the reconnection outflows dominate the global energy dissipation so that it is causally connected, but spatially and temporally de-coupled from the primary reconnecting current sheet. When compared to simulations of an isolated, force-free current sheet, these dynamics activate additional particle acceleration channels which are responsible for a significant population of the non-thermal particles, modifying the particle energy spectra.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2511.15988,
title = {Effects of Multi-scale Coupling on Particle Acceleration and Energy Partition in Magnetic Reconnection},
author = {Alexander Velberg and Adam Stanier and Xiaocan Li and Fan Guo and William Daughton and Nuno F. Loureiro},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.15988},
year = {2025}
}