Electron acceleration and heating in collisionless magnetic reconnection
Astrophysics
2009-11-07 v1 Plasma Physics
Space Physics
Abstract
We discuss electron acceleration and heating during collisionless magnetic reconnection by using the results of implicit kinetic simulations of Harris current sheets. We consider and compare electron dynamics in plasmas with different \beta values and perform simulations up to the physical mass ratio. We analyze the typical trajectory of electrons passing through the reconnection region, we study the electron velocity, focusing on the out-of-plane velocity, and we discuss the electron heating along the in-plane and out-of-plane directions.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0305081,
title = {Electron acceleration and heating in collisionless magnetic reconnection},
author = {Paolo Ricci and Giovanni Lapenta and J. U. Brackbill},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0305081},
year = {2009}
}