a Magnetic Reconnection Mechanism for Ion Acceleration and Abundance Enhancements in Impulsive Flares

We show that a nonrelativistic electron beam in a hydrogen-helium solar flare plasma will excite H(+) electromagnetic ion cyclotron, shear Alfven, and R-X waves, in addition to waves resulting from the two-stream instability. The H(+)…

Ion acceleration and direct ion heating in magnetic reconnection were experimentally observed during counterhelicity merging of two plasma toroids. Plasma ions are accelerated up to the order of the Alfvén speed through contraction of reconnected…

We discuss electron acceleration and heating during collisionless magnetic reconnection by using the results of implicit kinetic simulations of Harris current sheets. We consider and compare electron dynamics in plasmas with different beta values…

The suprathermal electrons of >=20 keV that extend from the hot thermal electron with 2-3 keV temperature are sometimes observed in Earth's magnetosphere in association with reconnection. We study the origin of the hot and suprathermal electrons in…

The gamma-ray space telescopes AGILE and Fermi detected short and bright synchrotron gamma-ray flares at photon energies above 100 MeV in the Crab Nebula. This discovery suggests that electron-positron pairs in the nebula are accelerated to PeV…

Photospheric motions may lead to twisted coronal magnetic fields which contain free energy that can be released by reconnection. Browning & Van der Linden suggested that such a relaxation event may be triggered by the onset of ideal kink…

One of the key unresolved problems in the study of space plasmas is to explain the production of energetic electrons as magnetic field lines `reconnect' and release energy in a exposive manner. Recent observations suggest possible roles played by…

There is no single mechanism by which fast particles are accelerated in astrophysical environments, and it is now recognized that the data require a rich variety of different mechanisms operating under different conditions. The mechanisms discussed…

The recent observations of the anomalous cosmic ray (ACR) energy spectrum as Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 crossed the heliospheric termination shock have called into question the conventional shock source of these energetic particles. We suggest that the…

Ion heating and acceleration has been studied in the well-characterized reconnection layer of the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment. Ion temperature in the layer rises substantially during null-helicity reconnection in which reconnecting field lines…