Impact of compressibility and a guide field on Fermi acceleration during magnetic island coalescence

Montag, P.; Egedal, J.; Lichko, E.; Wetherton, B.

doi:10.1063/1.4985302

Title: Impact of compressibility and a guide field on Fermi acceleration during magnetic island coalescence

Journal Article · Thu Jun 22 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4985302· OSTI ID:1535313

Montag, P. ^[1]; Egedal, J. ^[2]; Lichko, E. ^[2];

^[2]

Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Physics
Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Phyiscs

Previous work has shown that Fermi acceleration can be an effective heating mechanism during magnetic island coalescence, where electrons may undergo repeated reflections as the magnetic field lines contract. This energization has the potential to account for the power-law distributions of particle energy inferred from observations of solar flares. In this study, we develop a generalized framework for the analysis of Fermi acceleration that can incorporate the effects of compressibility and non-uniformity along field lines, which have commonly been neglected in previous treatments of the problem. Applying this framework to the simplified case of the uniform flux tube allows us to find both the power-law scaling of the distribution function and the rate at which the power-law behavior develops. We find that a guide magnetic field of order unity effectively suppresses the development of power-law distributions.

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Research Organization:: Krell Institute, Ames, IA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-97ER25308

OSTI ID:: 1535313

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1421078

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 24, Issue 6; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 29 works

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Theory of ion dynamics and heating by magnetic pumping in FRC plasma Egedal, J.; Monkhorst, H. J.; Lichko, E. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5041749	journal	July 2018
A computational model for exploring particle acceleration during reconnection in macroscale systems Drake, J. F.; Arnold, H.; Swisdak, M. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5058140	journal	January 2019
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The Roles of Fluid Compression and Shear in Electron Energization during Magnetic Reconnection Li, Xiaocan; Guo, Fan; Li, Hui The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 855, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aaacd5	journal	March 2018
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