Parallel electric fields are inefficient drivers of energetic electrons in magnetic reconnection

Abstract

We present two-dimensional kinetic simulations, with a broad range of initial guide fields, that isolate the role of parallel electric fields ($E_{\parallel }$) in energetic electron production during collisionless magnetic reconnection. In the strong guide field regime, $E_{\parallel }$ drives essentially all of the electron energy gain, yet fails to generate an energetic component. We suggest that this is due to the weak energy scaling of particle acceleration from $E_{\parallel }$ compared to that of a Fermi-type mechanism responsible for energetic electron production in the weak guide-field regime. This result has important implications for energetic electron production in astrophysical systems and reconnection-driven dissipation in turbulence.

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