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Acceleration of heavy ions in the magnetotail reconnection layer
Author(s) -
Fujimoto M.,
Nakamura M.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/94gl02102
Subject(s) - acceleration , physics , ion , magnetic reconnection , inertia , plasma , atomic physics , particle acceleration , plasmoid , plasma sheet , nuclear physics , magnetosphere , classical mechanics , quantum mechanics
The acceleration process of minor heavy ions in the magnetotail reconnection layer is studied by 1D hybrid simulations. In the plasma sheet, different acceleration mechanisms are found to be operative according to the heavy ion mass, not only because of their different inertia but also because of the evolutions of different downstream states. Despite this difference, the ions, including the major protons, are accelerated up to the maximum velocity of twice the lobe Alfven velocity: the energy gain is proportional to the ion mass.