Efficient Nonthermal Ion and Electron Acceleration Enabled by the Flux-Rope Kink Instability in 3D Nonrelativistic Magnetic Reconnection

Zhang, Qile; Guo, Fan; Daughton, William; Li, Xiaocan; Li, Hui

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.127.185101

Efficient Nonthermal Ion and Electron Acceleration Enabled by the Flux-Rope Kink Instability in 3D Nonrelativistic Magnetic Reconnection

Journal Article · Thu Oct 28 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.127.185101· OSTI ID:1838366

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Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (United States)

The relaxation of field-line tension during magnetic reconnection gives rise to a universal Fermi acceleration process involving the curvature drift of particles. However, the efficiency of this mechanism is limited by the trapping of energetic particles within flux ropes. Using 3D fully kinetic simulations, we demonstrate that the flux-rope kink instability leads to strong field-line chaos in weak-guide-field regimes where the Fermi mechanism is most efficient, thus allowing particles to transport out of flux ropes and undergo further acceleration. As a consequence, both ions and electrons develop clear power-law energy spectra that contain a significant fraction of the released energy. The low-energy bounds are determined by the injection physics, while the high-energy cutoffs are limited only by the system size. Furthermore, these results have strong relevance to observations of nonthermal particle acceleration in space and astrophysics.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Triad National Security, LLC (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001

OSTI ID:: 1838366

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1874183

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-21-24459; NNH17AE68I; 80HQTR20T0073; 80NSSC20K0627; 80HQTR21T0005; 80NSSC18K0289; PHY-1902867

Journal Information:: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 127; ISSN 0031-9007

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Efficient Nonthermal Ion and Electron Acceleration Enabled by the Flux-Rope Kink Instability in 3D Nonrelativistic Magnetic Reconnection

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