Acceleration of heavy ions in the magnetotail reconnection layer

The acceleration process of minor heavy ions in the magnetotail reconnection layer is studied by 1D hybrid simulations. In the plasma sheet, different acceleration mechanisms are found to be operative according to the heavy ion mass, not only because of their different inertia but also because of the evolutions of different downstream states. Despite this difference, the ions, including the major protons, are accelerated up to the maximum velocity of twice the lobe Alfven velocity: the energy gain is proportional to the ion mass.