Electron acceleration by whistler-mode waves around the magnetic null during 3D reconnection

The magnetic field configuration around a magnetic null pair and its associated electron behavior during 3D magnetic reconnection have recently been reported from in situ observations. Electrons are suggested to be temporarily trapped in the central reconnection region as indicated by an electron density peak observed near the magnetic null (He J-S et al 2008 Geophys. Res. Lett. 35 L14104). It is highly interesting that energetic electron beams of a few kiloelectronvolts are found to be related to the magnetic null structure. However, the acceleration mechanism is still not fully understood. In this paper, we show that strong whistler-mode electromagnetic waves are indeed found around the magnetic null. Further we propose a new electron acceleration scenario of trapped electrons near the magnetic null points driven by the whistler-mode waves, which is confirmed by numerical results. It is demonstrated that whistler waves can enhance the phase space density (PSD) of electrons for energies of ∼2 keV by a factor of 100 at lower pitch angles very rapidly, typically within 2 s. The accelerated electrons may escape from the loss cone of the magnetic cusp mirrors around the magnetic null, leading to the observed energetic beams.