Preferential acceleration of heavy ions in the reconnection outflow region

Context. Many observations show that heating in the solar corona should be more effective for heavy ions than for protons. Moreover, the efficiency of particle heating also seems to be larger for a larger particle electric charge. The transient magnetic reconnection is one of the most natural mechanisms of charged particle acceleration in the solar corona. However, the role of this process in preferential acceleration of heavy ions has still yet to be investigated.