Mechanism of channel-dependent post-injection energy gain

Identify the mechanism responsible for the difference in post-injection energy gain between particles assigned to the unmagnetized, re-magnetizing, and magnetized injection channels.

Background

The paper finds that particles assigned to the unmagnetized channel are substantially more likely than magnetized particles to appear above a fixed high-energy threshold after injection. This excess persists even when particles are compared within the same injection-time bins, indicating that it results from different amounts of energy gained after injection rather than solely from an earlier-injection head-start effect.

The simulations establish the existence of this channel-dependent difference but do not determine the physical mechanism responsible for it. Resolving that mechanism would clarify why high-energy particle censuses can over-represent particular injection channels relative to their actual shares of the injected population.

References

We have not identified the mechanism behind this difference in post-injection energy gain.

— Are $E>B$ regions essential for particle injection in relativistic magnetic reconnection?  (2610.22118 - French et al., 15 Oct 2026) in Section 3.2, Correlations between injection channels and post-injection energization

We have not identified the mechanism that energizes particles during post-exit intervals, and attributing post-exit work to $E>B$ regions would require identifying it.

— Are $E>B$ regions essential for particle injection in relativistic magnetic reconnection?  (2610.22118 - French et al., 15 Oct 2026) in Section 4.1, Comparison with previous work