Energetic electron acceleration by unsteady magnetic reconnection

Magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetosphere accelerates electrons. And yet energetic electrons are not created during reconnection in the solar wind. Observations from the Cluster spacecraft now suggest that electron acceleration is caused by repeated bursts of plasma flow, which only oc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature physics Vol. 9; no. 7; pp. 426 - 430
Main Authors Fu, H. S., Khotyaintsev, Yu. V., Vaivads, A., Retinò, A., André, M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group 2013
Subjects
Acceleration
Astrophysics
Betatrons
Chromosphere
Earth magnetosphere
Electron acceleration
Electrons
Magnetic fields
Outflow
Physics
Plasma Physics
Solar wind
Unsteady
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Summary:Magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetosphere accelerates electrons. And yet energetic electrons are not created during reconnection in the solar wind. Observations from the Cluster spacecraft now suggest that electron acceleration is caused by repeated bursts of plasma flow, which only occur in situations where the magnetic reconnection is unsteady. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
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ISSN:1745-2473
1745-2481
1745-2481
1476-4636
DOI:10.1038/nphys2664