Spatiotemporal evolution of electron characteristics in the electron diffusion region of magnetic reconnection: Implications for acceleration and heating

Based on particle‐in‐cell simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection, the spatiotemporal evolution of electron velocity distributions in the electron diffusion region (EDR) is reported to illustrate how electrons are accelerated and heated. Approximately when the reconnection rate maximizes, electron distributions in the vicinity of the X line exhibit triangular structures with discrete striations and a temperature ( T e ) twice that of the inflow region. T e increases as the meandering EDR populations mix with inflowing electrons. As the distance from the X line increases within the electron outflow jet, the discrete populations swirl into arcs and gyrotropize by the end of the jet with T e about 3 times that of the X line. Two dominant processes increase T e and produce the spatially and temporally evolving EDR distributions: (1) electric field acceleration preferential to electrons which meander in the EDR for longer times and (2) cyclotron turning by the magnetic field normal to the reconnection layer.