European Solar Physics Online Seminar Archive

Magnetic reconnection is widely accepted to be a major contributor to nonthermal particle acceleration in the solar atmosphere. We investigate particle acceleration in two evolving field geometries: first in an isolated tearing current sheet, then in a full-scale coronal jet. Both geometries involve 3D reconnection with at least one magnetic null point. A test-particle approach is employed, using electromagnetic fields from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of these geometries. Using this method, we examine the trajectories of high-energy protons and electrons injected near reconnecting null points and how the directionality of their acceleration differs. We will discuss what the ejection and impact patterns of heliosphere and photosphere-incident particles respectively can tell us about the location, size and shape of field structures that are formed in tearing current sheets during null-point reconnection in the solar corona. We will also consider how we may observe the simulated differences between proton and electron impact patterns. [more]