Related papers: Electron Energization in Reconnection: Eulerian ve…
Plasmoids -- magnetized quasi-circular structures formed self-consistently in reconnecting current sheets -- were previously considered to be the graveyards of energetic particles. In this paper, we demonstrate the important role of…
Particle dynamics in the electron current layer in collisionless magnetic reconnection is investigated by using a particle-in-cell simulation. Electron motion and velocity distribution functions are studied by tracking self-consistent…
While collisionless plasmas are ubiquitously present near astrophysical compact objects, the impact that their composition has on the high-energy emission is presently unknown. We present the first investigation of particle-acceleration…
Electrons in shocks are efficiently energized due to the cross-shock potential, which develops because of differential deflection of electrons and ions by the magnetic field in the shock front. The electron energization is necessarily…
A new fully kinetic system is proposed for modeling collisionless magnetic reconnection. The formulation relies on fundamental principles in Lagrangian dynamics, in which the inertia of the electron mean flow is neglected in the expression…
Magnetic reconnection in the relativistic and trans-relativistic regimes is able to accelerate particles to hard power law energy spectra $f \propto \gamma^{-p}$ (approaching $p=1$). The underlying acceleration mechanism that determines the…
A new computational model, kglobal, is being developed to explore energetic electron production via magnetic reconnection in macroscale systems. The model is based on the discovery that the production of energetic electrons during…
The dynamics of relativistic electrons interacting with a laser pulse in a plasma wave has been investigated theoretically and numerically based on the classical Landau-Lifshitz equation. There exists a convergent trajectory of electrons…
We investigate electron heating by magnetic-field-aligned electric fields ($E_\parallel$) during anti-parallel magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetotail. Using a statistical sample of 140 reconnection outflows, we infer the…
We present an analysis of the electron dynamics during rapid island merging in asymmetric magnetic reconnection. We consider a doubly periodic system with two asymmetric transitions. The upper layer is an asymmetric Harris sheet initially…
The idea here is to use large relative velocities of electrons and nuclei in accelerator beams to increase the probability of fusion. The function of the electrons is to both screen the positive charge and to produce an increased parallel…
Most treatments of electron-electron correlations in dense plasmas either ignore them entirely (random phase approximation) or neglect the role of ions (jellium approximation). In this work, we go beyond both these approximations to derive…
Magnetic reconnection can power spectacular high-energy astrophysical phenomena by producing non-thermal energy distributions in highly magnetized regions around compact objects. By means of two-dimensional fully kinetic particle-in-cell…
Magnetic reconnection is an important source of energetic particles in systems ranging from astrophysics to the laboratory. The large separation of spatiotemporal scales involved makes it critical to determine the minimum physical model…
Fully kinetic simulations are applied to the study of 2D anti-parallel reconnection, elucidating the dynamics by which the electron fluid maintains force balance within both the electron diffusion region (EDR) and the ion diffusion region…
Electron and proton acceleration in three-dimensional electric and magnetic fields is studied through test particle simulations. The fields are obtained by a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulation of magnetic reconnection in slab…
Magnetic reconnection and associated heating of ions and electrons in strongly magnetised, weakly collisional plasmas are studied by means of gyrokinetic simulations. It is shown that an appreciable amount of the released magnetic energy is…
We propose a new particle acceleration mechanism. Electron can be accelerated to relativistic energy within a few electromagnetic wave cycles through the mechanism which is named electromagnetic and magnetic field resonance acceleration…
The basic physics and recent progresses in theoretical and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation studies of particle acceleration in multi-island magnetic reconnection are briefly reviewed. Particle acceleration in multi-island magnetic…
Magnetic reconnection occurs ubiquitously in the universe and is often invoked to explain fast energy release and particle acceleration in high-energy astrophysics. The study of relativistic magnetic reconnection in the magnetically…