The Role of Magnetic Reconnection in Energizing Protons and Heavier Ions at the Heliospheric Current Sheet

TL;DR

This study models ion acceleration at the heliospheric current sheet via magnetic reconnection, showing power-law distributions and charge-to-mass ratio scaling consistent with Parker Solar Probe observations.

Contribution

It introduces a combined MHD and transport equation approach to quantify ion energization and charge-to-mass scaling at the HCS, aligning with in-situ data.

Findings

Ion species develop power-law energy distributions.

High-energy cutoff scales with charge-to-mass ratio as E_max ∝ (Q/M)^α.

Results support magnetic reconnection as a source of high-energy heavy ions.

Abstract

During near-Sun crossings of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS), Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observed populations of high-energy protons and heavier ions indicating possible energization by magnetic reconnection up to 10s -- 100s keV nucleon$^{-1}$. Here we study ion acceleration by magnetic reconnection at the HCS. To estimate ion energization, we solve the Parker transport equation coupled to a large-scale 2D MHD reconnection simulation. We find that multiple ion species develop power-law distributions with both spectral index and high-energy cutoff $E_{\text{max}}$ consistent with in-situ data. By accounting for the injection physics determined by kinetic simulations, we confirm that the charge-to-mass ratio scales as $E_{\text{max}} \propto (Q/M)^{\alpha}$ with $\alpha \sim 0.8-1.1$, approximately consistent with PSP measurements in the broader range $\alpha \sim 0.6-1.7$. In the limit where ions are injected at the same energy per nucleon, $\alpha$ can be as low as $\sim 0.3$. These findings further support the role of magnetic reconnection in producing high-energy heavy ions at the HCS.