Cause of super-thermal electron heating during magnetotail reconnection
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Author(s)
Egedal-Pedersen, Jan
Le, A.
Zhu, Y.
Daughton, W.
Oieroset, M.
Phan, T.
Lin, Robert P.
Date Issued
May 2010
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Citation
Egedal, J. et al. “Cause of Super-thermal Electron Heating During Magnetotail Reconnection.” Geophysical Research Letters 37.10 (2010). Copyright © 1999–2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
[1] We present a candidate mechanism for the energization of super-thermal electrons during magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetotail. By analyzing in-situ measurements of electron distribution functions we characterize the relative energy gain of the electrons as a function of energy, Δℰ(ℰ). For all the events considered the high energy part of Δℰ(ℰ) is nearly independent of equation image. This is the signature of energization in an acceleration potential, Φ||, which is caused by parallel electric fields in the vicinity of the reconnection region. The same acceleration mechanism is also documented for a kinetic simulation of reconnection.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plasma Science and Fusion Center
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/2010gl043487
