The impact of turbulence on electron heating and acceleration near the neutral point of externally driven reconnecting current sheets in solar flares

Abstract

We aim to investigate the influence of plasma instability on electron acceleration and heating near the neutral point of a turbulent reconnecting current sheet (RCS). Through numerically solving the one dimensional relativistic Vlasov equation with typical solar coronal parameters and a realistic mass ratio in the presence of a strong inductive electric field E0, we suggest that the wave-particle scattering may produce a flat electron flux spectrum from thermal to nonthermal electrons without a sudden low-energy cutoff in the acceleration region. The ratio between electron heating and acceleration decreases with the increase of the induced electric field. It is about one for E0=1 V cm−1 and one fourth for E0=10 V cm−1. The unstable waves excited by the beam plasma instability first accelerate the electrons, then trap these electrons from further acceleration by an induced electric field through wave-particle resonant interactions.