Time evolution of the reconnection rate in the numerical separator reconnection experiment detailed in Stevenson et al. (2015), shown in black, overlaid with average values of the top 20% of the range of kinetic energies gained by particle orbits (electron and proton, see legend) at several snapshots of the reconnection experiment (in red). Several of the particle orbit surveys performed at these snapshots are studied in further detail in Fig. 5. Times are stated relative to a single fast magneto-acoustic wave crossing time along the original separator, while the reconnection rate is calculated according to the dimensions applied to the MHS2 numerical experiment (b_scl = 10 G, l_scl = 1 Mm, and t_scl = 20 s).