Electron Heating by Parallel Electric Fields in Magnetotail Reconnection
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2025
We investigate electron heating by magnetic-field-aligned electric fields (E∥) during antiparallel magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetotail. Using a statistical sample of 140 reconnection outflows, we infer the acceleration potential associated with E∥ from the shape of the electron velocity distribution functions. We show that heating by E∥ in the reconnection outflow can reach up to 10 times the inflow electron temperature. We demonstrate that the magnitude of the acceleration potential scales with the inflow Alfvén and electron thermal speeds to maintain quasineutrality in the reconnection region. Our results suggest that, as the inflow plasma parameter βe∞ increases, E∥ becomes increasingly important to the ion-to-electron energy partition associated with magnetic reconnection.
Magnetic reconnection
Space & astrophysical plasma
Earth's magnetosphere
Magnetotail
Particle acceleration in plasmas
Space science
Författare
Louis Richard
Institutet for rymdfysik
Yuri V. Khotyaintsev
Institutet for rymdfysik
Cecilia Norgren
Institutet for rymdfysik
Konrad Steinvall
Chalmers, Fysik, Subatomär, högenergi- och plasmafysik
Daniel B. Graham
Institutet for rymdfysik
Jan Egedal
University of Wisconsin Madison
Andris Vaivads
Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH)
Ventspils Augstskola
Rumi Nakamura
Institut fur Weltraumforschung
Physical Review Letters
0031-9007 (ISSN) 1079-7114 (eISSN)
Vol. 134 21 215201Extrema plasmautbrott
Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse (2022.0087), 2023-07-01 -- 2028-06-30.
Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2025)
Fusion, plasma och rymdfysik
Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.215201