  Context. It has been suggested that collapsing magnetic traps may contribute
to accelerating particles to high energies during solar flares.
  Aims. We present a detailed investigation of the energization processes of
particles in collapsing magnetic traps, using a specific model. We also compare
for the first time the energization processes in a symmetric and an asymmetric
trap model.
  Methods. Particle orbits are calculated using guiding centre theory. We
systematically investigate the dependence of the energization process on
initial position, initial energy and initial pitch angle.
  Results. We find that in our symmetric trap model particles can gain up to
about 50 times their initial energy, but that for most initial conditions the
energy gain is more moderate. Particles with an initial position in the weak
field region of the collapsing trap and with pitch angles around 90 degrees
achieve the highest energy gain, with betatron acceleration of the
perpendicular energy the dominant energization mechanism. For particles with
smaller initial pitch angle, but still outside the loss cone, we find the
possibility of a significant increase in parallel energy. This increase in
parallel energy can be attributed to the curvature term in the parallel
equation of motion and the associated energy gain happens in the center of the
trap where the field line curvature has its maximum. We find qualitatively
similar results for the asymmetric trap model, but with smaller energy gains
and a larger number of particles escaping from the trap.
