English

Particle acceleration in an MHD-scale system of multiple current sheets

Space Physics 2022-08-16 v1 Plasma Physics

Abstract

We investigate particle acceleration in an MHD-scale system of multiple current sheets by performing 2D and 3D MHD simulations combined with a test particle simulation. The system is unstable for the tearing-mode instability, and magnetic islands are produced by magnetic reconnection. Due to the interaction of magnetic islands, the system turns into a turbulent state. The 2D (3D) case yields both 5/3-5/3 (11/3-11/3 and 7/3-7/3) power-law spacetra for magnetic and velocity fluctuations. Particles are efficiently energized by the generated turbulence, and it forms a power-law tail with an index of 2.2-2.2 and 4.2-4.2 in the energy distribution function for the 2D and 3D case, respectively. We find more energetic particles outside magnetic islands rather than inside. We observe super-diffusion in the 2D (t2.27\sim t^{2.27}) and 3D (t1.2\sim t^{1.2}) case in the energy space of energetic particles.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2205.07366,
  title  = {Particle acceleration in an MHD-scale system of multiple current sheets},
  author = {M. Nakanotani and G. P. Zank and L. -L. Zhao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.07366},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

25 pages, 10 figures, to be submitted to frontiers

R2 v1 2026-06-24T11:17:56.209Z