Electron acceleration and heating in collisionless magnetic reconnection

Electron acceleration and heating during collisionless magnetic reconnection is discussed by using the results of implicit kinetic simulations of Harris current sheets. Simulations up to the physical mass ratio are performed to study and compare electron dynamics in plasmas with different beta values. The attention is focused on the typical trajectory of electrons passing through the reconnection region, on the electron velocity, in particular on the out-of-plane velocity, and on the electron heating along the in-plane and out-of-plane directions. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.