ELECTRON HEATING AND ACCELERATION BY MAGNETIC RECONNECTION IN HOT ACCRETION FLOWS
- Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030 (China)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 77005 (United States)
Both analytical and numerical works show that magnetic reconnection must occur in hot accretion flows. This process will effectively heat and accelerate electrons. In this paper, we use the numerical hybrid simulation of magnetic reconnection plus the test-electron method to investigate the electron acceleration and heating due to magnetic reconnection in hot accretion flows. We consider fiducial values of density, temperature, and magnetic parameter beta{sub e} (defined as the ratio of the electron pressure to the magnetic pressure) of the accretion flow as n{sub 0} approx 10{sup 6} cm{sup -3}, T {sup 0}{sub e} approx 2 x 10{sup 9} K, and beta{sub e} = 1. We find that electrons are heated to a higher temperature T{sub e} = 5 x 10{sup 9} K, and a fraction eta approx 8% of electrons are accelerated into a broken power-law distribution, dN(gamma) propor to gamma{sup -p}, with p approx 1.5 and 4 below and above approx1 MeV, respectively. We also investigate the effect of varying beta and n{sub 0}. We find that when beta{sub e} is smaller or n{sub 0} is larger, i.e., the magnetic field is stronger, T{sub e} , eta, and p all become larger.
- OSTI ID:
- 21392389
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 708, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/708/2/1545; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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