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Relativistic reconnection has been invoked as a mechanism for particle acceleration in numerous astrophysical systems. According to idealised analytical models reconnection produces a bulk relativistic outflow emerging from the reconnection…
In magnetized astrophysical outflows, the dissipation of field energy into particle energy via magnetic reconnection is often invoked to explain the observed non-thermal signatures. By means of two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell…
High-energy astrophysical systems frequently contain collisionless relativistic plasmas that are heated by turbulent cascades and cooled by emission of radiation. Understanding the nature of this radiative turbulence is a frontier of…
The discovery of rapid synchrotron gamma-ray flares above 100 MeV from the Crab Nebula has attracted new interest in alternative particle acceleration mechanisms in pulsar wind nebulae. Diffuse shock-acceleration fails to explain the flares…
Rapid gamma-ray flares pose an astrophysical puzzle, requiring mechanisms both to accelerate energetic particles and to produce fast observed variability. These dual requirements may be satisfied by collisionless relativistic magnetic…
This review discusses the physics of magnetic reconnection, a process in which the magnetic field topology changes and magnetic energy is converted to kinetic energy, in pair plasmas in the relativistic regime. We focus on recent progress…
Many powerful and variable gamma-ray sources, including pulsar wind nebulae, active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts, seem capable of accelerating particles to gamma-ray emitting energies efficiently over very short time scales. These…
Magnetic reconnection is thought to be the driver for many explosive phenomena in the universe. The energy release and particle acceleration during reconnection have been proposed as a mechanism for producing high-energy emissions and…
High energy radiation from nonthermal particles accelerated in relativistic magnetic reconnection is thought to be important in many astrophysical systems, ranging from blazar jets and black hole accretion disk coronae to pulsars and…
Cosmic sources of gamma-ray radiation in the GeV range are often characterized by violent variability, in particular this concerns blazars, gamma-ray bursts, and the pulsar wind nebula Crab. Such gamma-ray emission requires a very efficient…
Particle acceleration in the magnetic reconnection of electron-positron plasmas is studied by using a particle-in-cell simulation. It is found that a significantly large number of nonthermal particles are generated by the inductive electric…
The gamma-ray space telescopes AGILE and Fermi detected short and bright synchrotron gamma-ray flares at photon energies above 100 MeV in the Crab Nebula. This discovery suggests that electron-positron pairs in the nebula are accelerated to…
Magnetic reconnection is invoked as one of the primary mechanisms to produce energetic particles. We employ large-scale three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection in magnetically-dominated ($\sigma=10$) pair plasmas…
Magnetic reconnection -- a fundamental plasma physics process, where magnetic field lines of opposite polarity annihilate -- is invoked in astrophysical plasmas as a powerful mechanism of nonthermal particle acceleration, able to explain…
Radiation emitted by nonthermal particles accelerated during relativistic magnetic reconnection is critical for understanding the nonthermal emission in a variety of astrophysical systems, including blazar jets, black hole coronae, pulsars,…
We present large scale 3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to examine particle energization in magnetic reconnection of relativistic electron-positron (pair) plasmas. The initial configuration is set up as a relativistic Harris…
The debate surrounding fast magnetic energy dissipation by magnetic reconnection has remained a fundamental topic in the plasma universe, not only in the Earth's magnetosphere but in astrophysical objects such as pulsar magnetospheres and…
For the first time to our knowledge, we demonstrate fast magnetic reconnection near a magnetic null point in a fluid model of collisionless pair plasma without resorting to the contrivance of anomalous resistivity. In particular, we…
The time evolution of high-energy synchrotron radiation generated in a relativistic pair plasma energized by reconnection of strong magnetic fields is investigated with two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) particle-in-cell (PIC)…
Magnetic reconnection is a leading mechanism for magnetic energy conversion and high-energy non-thermal particle production in a variety of high-energy astrophysical objects, including ones with relativistic ion-electron plasmas (e.g.,…