1 research outputs found
Electron heating and acceleration by magnetic reconnection in hot accretion flows
Both analytical and numerical works show that magnetic reconnection must
occur in hot accretion flows. This process will effectively heat and accelerate
electrons. In this paper we use the numerical hybrid simulation of magnetic
reconnection plus test-electron method to investigate the electron acceleration
and heating due to magnetic reconnection in hot accretion flows. We consider
fiducial values of density, temperature, and magnetic parameter
(defined as the ratio of the electron pressure to the magnetic pressure) of the
accretion flow as , , and . We find that electrons are heated to a higher
temperature K, and a fraction of electrons
are accelerated into a broken power-law distribution, , with and 4 below and above MeV,
respectively. We also investigate the effect of varying and . We
find that when is smaller or is larger, i.e, the magnetic field
is stronger, , , and all become larger.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure; accepted by Ap