Electric-drift generated trajectories and particle acceleration in collisionless magnetic reconnection

Adiabatic acceleration of charged particles along magnetic field lines originates from the coupling between the electric drift and longitudinal motion in a nonunidirectional magnetic field. As a result, initially slow particles entering the reconnection site of an X-type magnetic geometry can leave the latter as substantially accelerated jets directed along the magnetic separatrices. The corresponding energy spectrum has a power-law form, with the spectral index depending on the angle between the separatrices. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics