Open AccessSimulating the Ion-trapping Acceleration at Rippled Reconnection Fronts
Author(s) -
Kun Bai,
Yiqun Yu,
Hongtao Huang,
Jinbin Cao
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
astrophysical journal/the astrophysical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.376
H-Index - 489
eISSN - 1538-4357
pISSN - 0004-637X
DOI - 10.3847/1538-4357/ac3a08
Subject(s) - physics , particle acceleration , ion , acceleration , gyroradius , ripple , particle (ecology) , magnetosphere , computational physics , trapping , pitch angle , electric field , atomic physics , plasma , classical mechanics , geophysics , nuclear physics , power (physics) , ecology , oceanography , quantum mechanics , biology , geology
Reconnection fronts (RFs) play a vital role in particle acceleration and energy transport in the terrestrial magnetosphere. It is widely believed that RFs have planar monotonic profiles that determine the particle dynamics. However, recent in situ studies have revealed that the front surface is not planar as expected but rather rippled. How the surface irregularities of RFs’ impact particle energization and transport is still an open issue. Using a particle-tracing technique, we traced the trajectories of ions near fronts with or without surface ripples at different scales to understand how ions are mediated by such rippled structures. We find that the ion relative energy gain increases considerably when the rippled surface of RFs appears. The main acceleration mechanism is ion-trapping acceleration, in which ions are confined at the RFs for a longer time by the rippled structure and are accelerated by the duskward electric field. Moreover, ions can be accelerated effectively when their gyroradius is comparable to the size of the ripple. Formulas of relative energy gain as a function of the ripple size are presented.