Plasmoid Dominated Magnetic Reconnection and Particle Acceleration

Abstract

The effect of a parallel velocity shear on the explosive phase of magnetic reconnection in a double tearing mode is investigated within the 2D resistive magneto-hydrodynamic framework. All the systems follow a three phase evolution pattern with the phases delayed in time for an increasing shear speed. We find that the theoretical dependence of the reconnection rate with shear remains true in more general scenarios such as that of a plasmoid dominated double current sheet system. We also find that the power-law distribution of plasmoid sizes become steeper with an increasing sub-Alfvénic shear. We further demonstrate the effect of a velocity shear on acceleration of test particles pertaining to the modification in the energy spectrum.