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Abstract Relativistic magnetic turbulence has been proposed as a process for producing nonthermal particles in high-energy astrophysics. The particle energization may be contributed by both magnetic reconnection and turbulent fluctuations, but their interplay is poorly understood. It has been suggested that during magnetic reconnection the parallel electric field dominates the particle acceleration up to the lower bound of the power-law particle spectrum, but recent studies show that electric fields perpendicular to the magnetic field can play an important, if not dominant role. In this study, we carry out two-dimensional fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of magnetically dominated decaying turbulence in a relativistic pair plasma. For a fixed magnetization parameterσ0 = 20, we find that the injection energyεinjconverges with increasing domain size toεinj ≃ 10mec2. In contrast, the power-law index, the cut-off energy, and the power-law extent increase steadily with domain size. We trace a large number of particles and evaluate the contributions of the work done by the parallel (W∥) and perpendicular (W⊥) electric fields during both the injection phase and the postinjection phase. We find that during the injection phase, theW⊥contribution increases with domain size, suggesting that it may eventually dominate injection for a sufficiently large domain. In contrast, on average, both components contribute equally during the postinjection phase, insensitive to the domain size. For high energy (ε ≫ εinj) particles,W⊥dominates the subsequent energization. These findings may improve our understanding of nonthermal particles and their emissions in astrophysical plasmas.
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Particle Injection and Nonthermal Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection*
Abstract Magnetic reconnection in the relativistic regime has been proposed as an important process for the efficient production of nonthermal particles and high-energy emission. Using fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate how the guide-field strength and domain size affect the characteristic spectral features and acceleration processes. We study two stages of acceleration: energization up until the injection energyγinjand further acceleration that generates a power-law spectrum. Stronger guide fields increase the power-law index andγinj, which suppresses acceleration efficiency. These quantities seemingly converge with increasing domain size, suggesting that our findings can be extended to large-scale systems. We find that three distinct mechanisms contribute to acceleration during injection: particle streaming along the parallel electric field, Fermi reflection, and the pickup process. The Fermi and pickup processes, related to the electric field perpendicular to the magnetic field, govern the injection for weak guide fields and larger domains. Meanwhile, parallel electric fields are important for injection in the strong guide-field regime. In the post-injection stage, we find that perpendicular electric fields dominate particle acceleration in the weak guide-field regime, whereas parallel electric fields control acceleration for strong guide fields. These findings will help explain the nonthermal acceleration and emission in high-energy astrophysics, including black hole jets and pulsar wind nebulae.
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- PAR ID:
- 10409873
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Volume:
- 948
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0004-637X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 19
- Size(s):
- Article No. 19
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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