Magnetic Reconnection in Ion Acceleration in the Heliotail*

Magnetic reconnection is physical process wherein oppositely oriented magnetic fields deposit stored magnetic energy into plasma. The heliotail is a region of the heliosphere where the solar wind is compressed against the interstellar medium (ISM), and particles undergo charge exchange. Pickup ions (PUIs) are atoms from the ISM that undergo charge exchange with the charged particles of the solar wind, turning them into ions. The solar wind particles to become energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). Observations of the termination shock from Voyager show higher ENA flux that what was predicted by previous simulations using acceleration of PUIs in the termination shock. I used p3d, a particle-in-a-cell plasma simulation, to simulate two parallel current sheets with varying scale and plasma β in order to see if magnetic reconnection could be responsible for acceleration of ions. This geometry was chosen to mimic the parallel current sheets of the heliotail. A two peak ion energy distribution is needed for the observed ENA flux to be possible. A two hump distribution can be found through reconnection by integrating ion distributions from plasmas at different levels of reconnection, indicating that magnetic reconnection could be a plausible candidate for ion acceleration.