Acceleration of Energetic Particles through Reconnection of Weakly
  Stochastic Magnetic Field
  Astrophysical media are turbulent and therefore reconnection should be
treated in the presence of pre-existing turbulence. We consider the model of
fast magnetic reconnection in Lazarian & Vishniac (1999) which predicts that
the rate of reconnection is controlled by the intensity and the injection scale
of turbulent motions. We provide new evidence of successful testing of the
model and argue that the model presents a generic set up for astrophysical
reconnection events. We study particle acceleration that takes place in volumes
of driven turbulence as well turbulent volumes in the presence of large scale
reconnection. We show that in the latter case the acceleration is of the first
order Fermi type thus supporting the model of acceleration proposed in Gouveia
dal Pino & Lazarian (2005).
