{"paper":{"title":"The Role of Magnetic Reconnection in Energizing Protons and Heavier Ions at the Heliospheric Current Sheet","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"Simulations show magnetic reconnection at the heliospheric current sheet energizes protons and heavier ions to energies observed by Parker Solar Probe.","cross_cats":["physics.plasm-ph"],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.SR","authors_text":"Colby Haggerty, Fan Guo, Giulia Murtas, Giuseppe Arr\\`o, Jeongbhin Seo, Xiaocan Li","submitted_at":"2026-05-14T16:57:04Z","abstract_excerpt":"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 da"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"Multiple ion species develop power-law distributions with both spectral index and high-energy cutoff Emax consistent with in-situ data, and Emax scales as (Q/M)^alpha with alpha approximately 0.8-1.1.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"The injection physics (initial energy and location of ions) is taken from separate kinetic simulations and assumed to hold when coupled to the large-scale MHD field; if the actual injection differs significantly, the predicted Emax scaling and spectral indices would change.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"Magnetic reconnection at the heliospheric current sheet produces power-law ion distributions whose spectral index and Emax scaling with charge-to-mass ratio are consistent with Parker Solar Probe data.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"Simulations show magnetic reconnection at the heliospheric current sheet energizes protons and heavier ions to energies observed by Parker Solar Probe.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"8414b69adf99d6cc84f9a2c24fcacc90c471eb5868c2425fff21842ab6379771"},"source":{"id":"2605.15068","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":"b49414c1-0da0-4c81-8e9c-bcdfe79f0b72","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-15T02:53:29.760172Z","strongest_claim":"Multiple ion species develop power-law distributions with both spectral index and high-energy cutoff Emax consistent with in-situ data, and Emax scales as (Q/M)^alpha with alpha approximately 0.8-1.1.","one_line_summary":"Magnetic reconnection at the heliospheric current sheet produces power-law ion distributions whose spectral index and Emax scaling with charge-to-mass ratio are consistent with Parker Solar Probe data.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"The injection physics (initial energy and location of ions) is taken from separate kinetic simulations and assumed to hold when coupled to the large-scale MHD field; if the actual injection differs significantly, the predicted Emax scaling and spectral indices would change.","pith_extraction_headline":"Simulations show magnetic reconnection at the heliospheric current sheet energizes protons and heavier ions to energies observed by Parker Solar Probe."},"references":{"count":50,"sample":[{"doi":"10.1103/physrevlett.126.135101","year":2021,"title":"F., Swisdak, M., et al","work_id":"23d46dec-393b-41ee-9b81-19baefc9ed6c","ref_index":1,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.1016/0370-1573(87)90134-7","year":1987,"title":"Blandford \\ and\\ author D","work_id":"098bdd97-be52-424b-bf66-50a5cdfa21b8","ref_index":2,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3494","year":null,"title":"2023a, in EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, EGU–3494, doi: 10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3494","work_id":"ed71bac6-5256-4b25-b5e4-4e115e329253","ref_index":3,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.3847/1538-4357/ac4961","year":2022,"title":"Desai, M. I., Mitchell, D. G., McComas, D. J., et al. 2022, ApJ, 927, 62, doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac4961","work_id":"941b6447-ce46-4984-88f1-380f8b625c0e","ref_index":4,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.3847/2041-8213/ada697","year":2025,"title":"Desai, M. I., Drake, J. F., Phan, T., et al. 2025, ApJL, 985, L38, doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ada697","work_id":"b914ff90-4ffd-4db4-90bb-cf86cd4ab0bf","ref_index":5,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false}],"resolved_work":50,"snapshot_sha256":"b13f38214c10b705b075ca368efb15e4129b6a490f60a40144a228a74903a040","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":1,"snapshot_sha256":"62730e9bfa049830652bec4cb178823b7c0e3c76032c90ddff105d248a78ecda"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}