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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 energy γ inj and further acceleration that generates a power-law spectrum. Stronger guide fields increase the power-law index and γ inj, 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of double coronal X-ray sources have been observed during solar flares by RHESSI, where the two sources reside at different sides of the inferred reconnection site. However, where and how these X-ray-emitting electrons are accelerated remains unclear. Here we present the first model of the double coronal hard X-ray (HXR) sources, where electrons are accelerated by a pair of termination shocks driven by bidirectional fast reconnection outflows. We model the acceleration and transport of electrons in the flare region by numerically solving the Parker transport equation using velocity and magnetic fields from the macroscopic magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a flux rope eruption. We show that electrons can be efficiently accelerated by the termination shocks and high-energy electrons mainly concentrate around the two shocks. The synthetic HXR emission images display two distinct sources extending to >100 keV below and above the reconnection region, with the upper source much fainter than the lower one. The HXR energy spectra of the two coronal sources show similar spectral slopes, consistent with the observations. Our simulation results suggest that the flare termination shock can be a promising particle acceleration mechanism in explaining the double-source nonthermal emissions in solar flares. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various systems can be modeled as a point-like explosion of ionized debris into a magnetized, collisionless background plasma—including astrophysical examples, active experiments in space, and laser-driven laboratory experiments. Debris streaming from the explosion parallel to the magnetic field may drive multiple resonant and non-resonant ion–ion beam instabilities, some of which can efficiently couple the debris energy to the background and may even support the formation of shocks. We present a large-scale hybrid (kinetic ions + fluid electrons) particle-in-cell simulation, extending hundreds of ion inertial lengths from a 3D explosion, that resolves these instabilities. We show that the character of these instabilities differs notably from the 1D equivalent by the presence of unique transverse structure. Additional 2D simulations explore how the debris beam length, width, density, and speed affect debris–background coupling, with implications for the generation of quasi-parallel shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coupling between a rapidly expanding cloud of ionized debris and an ambient magnetized plasma is revisited with a hybrid (kinetic ion/fluid electron) simulation code that allows a study over a wide range of plasma parameters. Over a specified range of hypothetical conditions, simple scaling laws in terms of the total debris mass and explosion speed are derived and verified for the maximal size of the debris cloud and the fraction of debris that free‐streams from the burst along the magnetic field. The amount of debris that escapes from the burst with minimal coupling to the background magnetic field increases with the debris gyroradius. Test cases with two different debris species—including a heavy minority species with a relatively large gyroradius—highlight how the collisionless coupling of the debris depends on the single particle trajectories as well as the overall conservation of energy and momentum. Plain Language Summary: An astrophysical explosion is the rapid expansion of a cloud of ionized debris into a surrounding magnetized plasma. Examples include supernova remnants, targets hit by lasers in laboratory experiments, and active experiments in space where barium or other material is rapidly released. We systematically study the dependence of the distance the debris travels on its initial speed and on the total quantity of exploded mass. We also formulate simple estimates for the fraction of the debris that escapes along the magnetic field without losing much energy. Key Points: With hybrid particle‐in‐cell simulations, we formulate scalings for the size of an astrophysical explosion over a range of parametersTransport across the magnetic field by flute modes is quantifiedEstimates are developed for the fraction of the total debris that exits the explosion in free‐streaming beams along the magnetic field [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blazars are relativistic magnetized plasma outflows from supermassive black holes that point very close to our line of sight. Their emission is nonthermal-dominated and highly variable across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Relativistic magnetic reconnection has been proposed as the driver of particle acceleration during blazar flares. While recent particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations have self-consistently studied the evolution of magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration therein, the resulting radiation signatures have not been systematically explored. In particular, the polarization signatures, which directly reflect the characteristic strongly dynamical evolution of magnetic field during reconnection, have not been carefully investigated. In this paper, we present a systematic study of radiation and polarization signatures arising from magnetic reconnection in blazars, based on combined PIC and polarized radiation transfer simulations with various physical parameters. We identify a harder-when-brighter trend in the spectral evolution. Moreover, higher-frequency bands (ultraviolet to X-ray) tend to flare earlier than lower-frequency bands (infrared to optical) in the synchrotron spectral component. Most importantly, polarization signatures appear more variable with higher frequencies. We find that the variation in temporal polarization depends strongly on the guide field strength. Specifically, reconnection with a significant guide field component leads to a very high polarization degree that contradicts typical blazar observations, while large polarization angle rotations are unique signatures of magnetic reconnection between nearly antiparallel magnetic field lines. These rotations are at least 90° and can extend to >180°, and they may be in either direction. These results imply that blazars that have shown large polarization angle rotations intrinsically have more nearly antiparallel magnetic field morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic reconnection in the relativistic and transrelativistic regimes is able to accelerate particles to hard power-law energy spectra f ∝ γ−p (approaching p = 1). The underlying acceleration mechanism that determines the spectral shape is currently a topic of intense investigation. By means of fully kinetic plasma simulations, we carry out a study of particle acceleration during magnetic reconnection in the transrelativistic regime of a proton–electron plasma. While earlier work in this parameter regime has focused on the effects of electric field parallel to the local magnetic field on the particle injection (from thermal energy to the lower-energy bound of the power-law spectrum), here we examine the roles of both parallel and perpendicular electric fields to gain a more complete understanding on the injection process and further development of a power-law spectrum. We show that the parallel electric field does contribute significantly to particle injection, and is more important in the initial phase of magnetic reconnection. However, as the simulation proceeds, the acceleration by the perpendicular electric field becomes more important for particle injection and completely dominates the acceleration responsible for the high-energy power-law spectrum. This holds robustly, in particular for longer reconnection times and larger systems, i.e., in simulations that are more indicative of the processes in astrophysical sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using numerical simulations of charged-particles propagating in the heliospheric magnetic field, we study small-scale gradients, or “dropouts,” in the intensity of solar energetic particles seen at 1 AU. We use two turbulence models, the foot-point random motion model and the two-component model, to generate fluctuating magnetic fields similar to spacecraft observations at 1 AU. The turbulence models include a Kolmogorov-like magnetic field power spectrum containing a broad range of spatial scales from those that lead to large-scale field-line random walk to small scales leading to resonant pitch-angle scattering of energetic particles. We release energetic protons (20 keV-10 MeV) from a spatially compact and instantaneous source. The trajectories of energetic charged particles in turbulent magnetic fields are numerically integrated. Spacecraft observations are mimicked by collecting particles in small windows when they pass the windows at a distance of 1 AU. We show that small-scale gradients in the intensity of energetic particles and velocity dispersions observed by spacecraft can be reproduced using the foot-point random motion model. However, no dropouts are seen in simulations using the two-component magnetic turbulence model. We also show that particle scattering in the solar wind magnetic field needs to be infrequent for intensity dropouts to form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface evolution for a conductor electrode under pulsed megagauss (MG) magnetic field was investigated. Stainless steel rods with 3 mm diameter were driven by 8 MA, 130 ns (10%–90%) current pulse in a series of shots on the Primary Test Stand. Experimental data from two complementary diagnostic systems and simulation results from one-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamics code reveal a transition phase for instability development. The transition, which begins as the conductor surface starts to expand, lasts about 40 ns in the pulse. It ends after the thermal plasma is formed, and striation electrothermal instability growth stops but magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability (MRTI) starts to develop. An expanding velocity which grows to about 2.0 km/s during the transition phase was directly measured for the first time. The threshold magnetic field for thermal plasma formation on the stainless steel surface was inferred to be 3.3 MG under a rising rate of about 66 MG/μs, and after that MRTI becomes predominant for amplitude growth in surface perturbation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]