Particle injection in three-dimensional relativistic magnetic reconnection

Journal article

Relativistic magnetic reconnection has been proposed as an important non-thermal particle acceleration (NTPA) mechanism that generates power-law spectra and high-energy emissions. Power-law particle spectra are in general characterised by three parameters: the power-law index, the high-energy cutoff and the low-energy cutoff (i.e. the injection energy). Particle injection into the non-thermal power law, despite also being a critical step in the NTPA chain, has received considerably less attention than the subsequent acceleration to high energies. Open questions on particle injection that are important for both physical understanding and astronomical observations include how the upstream magnetisation influences the injection energy and the contributions of the known injection mechanisms (i.e. direct acceleration by the reconnection electric field, Fermi kicks and pickup acceleration) to the injected particle population. Using fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we uncover these relationships by systematically measuring the injection energy and calculating the contributions of each acceleration mechanism to the total injected particle population. We also present a theoretical model to explain these results. Additionally, we compare two- and three-dimensional simulations to assess the impact of the flux-rope kink and drift-kink instability on particle injection. We conclude with comparisons with previous work and outlook for future work.

Authors: French, O; Werner, GR; Uzdensky, DA

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: Journal of Plasma Physics
• Volume: 92
• Issue: 1
• Article number: E10
• Publication date: 2026-02-19
• Acceptance date: 2025-11-30
• DOI: 10.1017/s0022377825101189
• EISSN: 1469-7807
• ISSN: 0022-3778
• Language: English
• Keywords: astrophysical plasmas; plasma simulation