The onset of magnetic reconnection in three dimensions
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547 (United States)
The onset of collisionless magnetic reconnection in current sheets containing a localized enhancement of the initial normal magnetic field component is examined using 2D and 3D particle-in-cell simulations that treat a closed system. In the 2D case, the current sheet is found to remain stable for at least several hundred inverse ion cyclotron times. In 3D, however, the system is found to be unstable to a ballooning/interchange type of mode with wavenumber k{sub y}ρ{sub in}∼1 (where ρ{sub in} is the ion gyroradius in the normal field B{sub z}). These modes evolve to form intense “heads” of strongly enhanced B{sub z}; in the wake of the heads are regions of strongly reduced or reversed B{sub z}. These local field reversals lead to the onset of reconnection with reconnection electric fields several times more intense than typical values seen for 2D reconnection.
- OSTI ID:
- 22227854
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 20, Issue 8; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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