The extent of power-law energy spectra in collisionless relativistic magnetic reconnection in pair plasma
Journal Article
·
· The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online)
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Univ. of Colorado and National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO (United States); Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Univ. of Colorado and National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO (United States)
Using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we characterize the energy spectra of particles accelerated by relativistic magnetic reconnection (without guide field) in collisionless electron–positron plasmas, for a wide range of upstream magnetizations σ and system sizes L. The particle spectra are well-represented by a power law $${\gamma }^{-\alpha }$$, with a combination of exponential and super-exponential high-energy cutoffs, proportional to σ and L, respectively. As a result, for large L and σ, the power-law index α approaches about 1.2.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 1261075
- Report Number(s):
- SLAC-PUB-16599; arXiv:1409.8262
- Journal Information:
- The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online), Vol. 816, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-8213
- Publisher:
- Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Cited by: 169 works
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