Efficient Nonthermal Ion and Electron Acceleration Enabled by the Flux-Rope Kink Instability in 3D Nonrelativistic Magnetic Reconnection
arXiv:2105.04521 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.185101
Abstract
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 which 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. These results have strong relevance to observations of nonthermal particle acceleration in space and astrophysics.
arXiv comment8 pages, 3 figures. Accepted by Physical Review Letters
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