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Two cases of weakly and strongly stressed X-point collapse were considered.Here descriptors weakly and strongly refer to 20 % and 124 % unidirectionalspatial compression of the X-point, respectively. In the weakly stressed case,the reconnection rate, defined as the out-of-plane electric field in theX-point (the magnetic null) normalised by the product of external magneticfield and Alfv\'en speeds, peaks at 0.11, with its average over 1.25 Alfv\'entimes being 0.04. Electron energy distribution in the current sheet, at thehigh energy end of the spectrum, shows a power law distribution with the indexvarying in time, attaining a maximal value of -4.1 at the final simulation timestep (1.25 Alfv\'en times). In the strongly stressed case, magneticreconnection peak occurs 3.4 times faster and is more efficient. The peakreconnection rate now attains value 2.5, with the average reconnection rateover 1.25 Alfv\'en times being 0.5. The power law energy spectrum for theelectrons in the current sheet attains now a steeper index of -5.5, a valueclose to the ones observed in the vicinity of X-type region in the Earth'smagneto-tail. Within about one Alfv\'en time, 2% and 20% of the initialmagnteic energy is converted into heat and accelerated particle energy in thecase of weak and strong stress, respectively. In the both cases, during thepeak of the reconnection, the quadruple out-of-plane magnetic field isgenerated, hinting possibly to the Hall regime of the reconnection. Theseresults strongly suggest the importance of the collionless, stressed X-pointcollapse as a possible contributing factor to the solution of the solar coronalheating problem or more generally, as an efficient mechanism of convertingmagnetic energy into heat and super-thermal particle energy.

Magnetic reconnection during collisionless, stressed, X-point collapse using Particle-in-Cell simulation