Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
May 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sm22a07b&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SM22A-07
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
2118 Energetic Particles, Solar, 7524 Magnetic Fields, 7831 Laboratory Studies, 7835 Magnetic Reconnection
Scientific paper
Magnetic reconnection may play a significant role in the acceleration of charged particles to ultra-relativistic energies on astrophysical scales. The key feature is that the reconnection electric field is of order v B where v is a typical MHD flow velocity and B is a typical magnetic field strength. If magnetic reconnnection plays a role in particle acceleration then maximum particle energies should scale as v B L where L is a characteristic length of the system. We present measurements from the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment (SSX) showing a population of superthermal, super-Alfvénic ions with /line{E} ≅ 100 eV accelerated by reconnection activity. In a typical SSX discharge, v B L = (105 \ m/s) (0.05 \ T) (0.1 \ m) = 500 volts. These energetic ions are correlated with magnetic reconnection events (measured with 2D probe arrays) and are accelerated normal to the local 2D plane of reconnection. In addition, test particle simulations using MHD data from SSX simulations and run with dimensionless parameters similar to the experiment (S=1000, β = 0.1) show acceleration of ions up to 2 vAlf in a few Alfvén times. (Research supported by the USDOE under grants ER54422 and ER54490)
Brown Richard M.
Cothran C. D.
Lukin Vyacheslav S.
Matthaeus William H.
Qin Gan
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