Energy budgets in collisionless magnetic reconnection: Ion heating and bulk acceleration

Journal Article · Thu Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3664320· OSTI ID:22047136

Aunai, N; Belmont, G; Smets, R ^[1]

---

1. Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas (LPP), Ecole Polytechnique, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Universite Paris 11 Orsay, CNRS, route de Scalay, 91128 Palaiseau (France)

This paper investigates the energy transfer in the process of collisionless antiparallel magnetic reconnection. Using two-dimensional hybrid simulations, we measure the increase of the bulk and thermal kinetic energies and compare it to the loss of magnetic energy through a contour surrounding the ion decoupling region. It is shown, for both symmetric and asymmetric configurations, that the loss of magnetic energy is not equally partitioned between heating and acceleration. The heating is found to be dominant and the partition ratio depends on the asymptotic parameters, and future investigations will be needed to understand this dependence.

• OSTI ID: 22047136
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATION
ASYMMETRY
ASYMPTOTIC SOLUTIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DECOUPLING
ENERGY TRANSFER
IONS
KINETIC ENERGY
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
PLASMA
PLASMA HEATING
PLASMA SIMULATION
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS