Solar Tevatron

Outcome: A source of high energy particle acceleration was proposed to be within our Solar system.

Transformative: The model provides explanation for the puzzling observational data and may be a direct evidence of the acceleration of cosmic rays by magnetic reconnection.

Explanation:

Scientific problem: Cosmic rays are energetic particles that are accelerated to high energies by processes that are still hotly debated. Due to scattering by magnetic fields between us and their enigmatic sources the cosmic rays come to the Earth with high degree of uniformity.  However, from a particular direction a significant excess of  the cosmic ray arrivals has been detected.

Solution: We identified this direction  with the magnetic wake produced by Solar system and identified the mechanism of acceleration with magnetic reconnection that happens as magnetic fields produced by the Sun and alternating due to magnetic field changes induced by Solar cycle reconnect and annihilate in the turbulent solar system wake.

Significance: This may be the first identification of an efficient high energy cosmic ray accelerator. Similar acceleration can happen in other astrophysical systems explaining a significant part of the observed cosmic rays.  The results have been discussed by New Scientist magazine.