Determining the Dominant Acceleration Mechanism during Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in Large-scale Systems
Abstract
While a growing body of research indicates that relativistic magnetic reconnection is a prodigious source of particle acceleration in high-energy astrophysical systems, the dominant acceleration mechanism remains controversial. Using a combination of fully kinetic simulations and theoretical analysis, in this work we demonstrate that Fermi-type acceleration within the large-scale motional electric fields dominates over direct acceleration from non-ideal electric fields within small-scale diffusion regions. This result has profound implications for modeling particle acceleration in large-scale astrophysical problems, as it opens up the possibility of modeling the energetic spectra without resolving microscopic diffusion regions.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[1];
[1];
;
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (United States)
- Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1577717
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1671080
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-18-31752
Journal ID: ISSN 2041-8213; TRN: US2102290
- Grant/Contract Number:
- NNH17AE68I; 20180475DR; 89233218CNA000001; NNH16AC60I
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online)
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online); Journal Volume: 879; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-8213
- Publisher:
- Institute of Physics (IOP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; acceleration of particles; galaxies-jets; magnetic reconnection; relativistic processes; gamma-ray burst-general; pulsars-general
Citation Formats
Guo, Fan, Li, Xiaocan, Daughton, William, Kilian, Patrick, Li, Hui, Liu, Yi-Hsin, Yan, Wangcheng, and Ma, Dylan. Determining the Dominant Acceleration Mechanism during Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in Large-scale Systems. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ab2a15.
Guo, Fan, Li, Xiaocan, Daughton, William, Kilian, Patrick, Li, Hui, Liu, Yi-Hsin, Yan, Wangcheng, & Ma, Dylan. Determining the Dominant Acceleration Mechanism during Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in Large-scale Systems. United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ab2a15
Guo, Fan, Li, Xiaocan, Daughton, William, Kilian, Patrick, Li, Hui, Liu, Yi-Hsin, Yan, Wangcheng, and Ma, Dylan. Wed .
"Determining the Dominant Acceleration Mechanism during Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in Large-scale Systems". United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ab2a15. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1577717.
@article{osti_1577717,
title = {Determining the Dominant Acceleration Mechanism during Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in Large-scale Systems},
author = {Guo, Fan and Li, Xiaocan and Daughton, William and Kilian, Patrick and Li, Hui and Liu, Yi-Hsin and Yan, Wangcheng and Ma, Dylan},
abstractNote = {While a growing body of research indicates that relativistic magnetic reconnection is a prodigious source of particle acceleration in high-energy astrophysical systems, the dominant acceleration mechanism remains controversial. Using a combination of fully kinetic simulations and theoretical analysis, in this work we demonstrate that Fermi-type acceleration within the large-scale motional electric fields dominates over direct acceleration from non-ideal electric fields within small-scale diffusion regions. This result has profound implications for modeling particle acceleration in large-scale astrophysical problems, as it opens up the possibility of modeling the energetic spectra without resolving microscopic diffusion regions.},
doi = {10.3847/2041-8213/ab2a15},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online)},
number = 2,
volume = 879,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jul 10 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Wed Jul 10 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
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