Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 347, Issue 6225, Pages 974-978Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1260168
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Funding
- RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science through the High Performance Computing Infrastructure System Research project [hp120222, hp120287]
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Strategic Programs for Innovative Research [26400266]
- Joint Institute for Computational Fundamental Science
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [25287151, 25800101, 26400266] Funding Source: KAKEN
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Explosive phenomena such as supernova remnant shocks and solar flares have demonstrated evidence for the production of relativistic particles. Interest has therefore been renewed in collisionless shock waves and magnetic reconnection as a means to achieve such energies. Although ions can be energized during such phenomena, the relativistic energy of the electrons remains a puzzle for theory. We present supercomputer simulations showing that efficient electron energization can occur during turbulent magnetic reconnection arising from a strong collisionless shock. Upstream electrons undergo first-order Fermi acceleration by colliding with reconnection jets and magnetic islands, giving rise to a nonthermal relativistic population downstream. These results shed new light on magnetic reconnection as an agent of energy dissipation and particle acceleration in strong shock
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