Electron Acceleration in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection

A 2 1/2-dimensional electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation code is used to investigate the electron acceleration in collisionless magnetic reconnection. The results show that the electrons are accelerated in the diffusion region near the X point, and the acceleration process can be roughly divided into two procedures: firstly the electrons are accelerated in the z direction due to the electric field in the negative z direction. Then the electrons gyrate surrounding the magnetic field with the action of the Lorentz force, through this procedure the electrons reach higher velocity in the x direction and then flow out of the diffusion region. After being accelerated away from the diffusion region, part of electrons is trapped near the O point, and the other part of electrons flows into plasma sheet boundary layer along the magnetic field.