The island coalescence problem: Scaling of reconnection in extended fluid models including higher-order moments
Abstract
As modeling of collisionless magnetic reconnection in most space plasmas with realistic parameters is beyond the capability of today's simulations, due to the separation between global and kinetic length scales, it is important to establish scaling relations in model problems so as to extrapolate to realistic scales. Recently, large scale particle-in-cell simulations of island coalescence have shown that the time averaged reconnection rate decreases with system size, while fluid systems at such large scales in the Hall regime have not been studied. Here, we perform the complementary resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), Hall MHD, and two fluid simulations using a ten-moment model with the same geometry. In contrast to the standard Harris sheet reconnection problem, Hall MHD is insufficient to capture the physics of the reconnection region. Additionally, motivated by the results of a recent set of hybrid simulations which show the importance of ion kinetics in this geometry, we evaluate the efficacy of the ten-moment model in reproducing such results.
- Authors:
-
- Center for Heliophysics, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 (United States)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
- Space Science Center and Physics Department, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824 (United States)
- Publication Date:
- OSTI Identifier:
- 22489821
- Resource Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal Name:
- Physics of Plasmas
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 22; Journal Issue: 11; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; COALESCENCE; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; FLOW MODELS; HALL EFFECT; KINETICS; MAGNETIC RECONNECTION; MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS; PLASMA
Citation Formats
Ng, Jonathan, Huang, Yi-Min, Hakim, Ammar, Bhattacharjee, A., Stanier, Adam, Daughton, William, Wang, Liang, and Germaschewski, Kai. The island coalescence problem: Scaling of reconnection in extended fluid models including higher-order moments. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.4935302.
Ng, Jonathan, Huang, Yi-Min, Hakim, Ammar, Bhattacharjee, A., Stanier, Adam, Daughton, William, Wang, Liang, & Germaschewski, Kai. The island coalescence problem: Scaling of reconnection in extended fluid models including higher-order moments. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4935302
Ng, Jonathan, Huang, Yi-Min, Hakim, Ammar, Bhattacharjee, A., Stanier, Adam, Daughton, William, Wang, Liang, and Germaschewski, Kai. 2015.
"The island coalescence problem: Scaling of reconnection in extended fluid models including higher-order moments". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4935302.
@article{osti_22489821,
title = {The island coalescence problem: Scaling of reconnection in extended fluid models including higher-order moments},
author = {Ng, Jonathan and Huang, Yi-Min and Hakim, Ammar and Bhattacharjee, A. and Stanier, Adam and Daughton, William and Wang, Liang and Germaschewski, Kai},
abstractNote = {As modeling of collisionless magnetic reconnection in most space plasmas with realistic parameters is beyond the capability of today's simulations, due to the separation between global and kinetic length scales, it is important to establish scaling relations in model problems so as to extrapolate to realistic scales. Recently, large scale particle-in-cell simulations of island coalescence have shown that the time averaged reconnection rate decreases with system size, while fluid systems at such large scales in the Hall regime have not been studied. Here, we perform the complementary resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), Hall MHD, and two fluid simulations using a ten-moment model with the same geometry. In contrast to the standard Harris sheet reconnection problem, Hall MHD is insufficient to capture the physics of the reconnection region. Additionally, motivated by the results of a recent set of hybrid simulations which show the importance of ion kinetics in this geometry, we evaluate the efficacy of the ten-moment model in reproducing such results.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4935302},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22489821},
journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
issn = {1070-664X},
number = 11,
volume = 22,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Sun Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}
Works referenced in this record:
Hybrid and Hall-MHD simulations of collisionless reconnection: Dynamics of the electron pressure tensor
journal, June 2001
- Yin, L.; Winske, D.; Gary, S. P.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 106, Issue A6
Transition to whistler mediated magnetic reconnection
journal, January 1994
- Mandt, M. E.; Denton, R. E.; Drake, J. F.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 21, Issue 1
Electron magnetohydrodynamic simulations of magnetic island coalescence
journal, September 2001
- Dorelli, John C.; Birn, Joachim
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 8, Issue 9
Coalescence instability of magnetic islands
journal, January 1977
- Finn, J. M.; Kaw, P. K.
- Physics of Fluids, Vol. 20, Issue 1
Coalescence of magnetic islands
journal, January 1979
- Pritchett, P. L.; Wu, C. C.
- Physics of Fluids, Vol. 22, Issue 11
Flux Pileup in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection: Bursty Interaction of Large Flux Ropes
journal, July 2011
- Karimabadi, H.; Dorelli, J.; Roytershteyn, V.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 2
Magnetic reconnection
journal, March 2010
- Yamada, Masaaki; Kulsrud, Russell; Ji, Hantao
- Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 82, Issue 1
Works referencing / citing this record:
Gyrokinetic continuum simulation of turbulence in a straight open-field-line plasma
journal, May 2017
- Shi, E. L.; Hammett, G. W.; Stoltzfus-Dueck, T.
- Journal of Plasma Physics, Vol. 83, Issue 3
A review of the 0.1 reconnection rate problem
journal, September 2017
- Cassak, P. A.; Liu, Y. -H.; Shay, M. A.
- Journal of Plasma Physics, Vol. 83, Issue 5
Drift Instabilities in Thin Current Sheets Using a Two‐Fluid Model With Pressure Tensor Effects
journal, May 2019
- Ng, Jonathan; Hakim, Ammar; Juno, J.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 124, Issue 5
Global Ten‐Moment Multifluid Simulations of the Solar Wind Interaction with Mercury: From the Planetary Conducting Core to the Dynamic Magnetosphere
journal, November 2019
- Dong, Chuanfei; Wang, Liang; Hakim, Ammar
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 21
An Extended MHD Study of the 16 October 2015 MMS Diffusion Region Crossing
journal, November 2019
- TenBarge, J. M.; Ng, J.; Juno, J.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 124, Issue 11
Continuum kinetic and multi-fluid simulations of classical sheaths
journal, February 2017
- Cagas, P.; Hakim, A.; Juno, J.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 24, Issue 2
Simulations of anti-parallel reconnection using a nonlocal heat flux closure
journal, August 2017
- Ng, Jonathan; Hakim, Ammar; Bhattacharjee, A.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 24, Issue 8
Study of magnetic reconnection in large-scale magnetic island coalescence via spatially coupled MHD and PIC simulations
journal, August 2018
- Makwana, Kirit D.; Keppens, Rony; Lapenta, Giovanni
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 8
Using the maximum entropy distribution to describe electrons in reconnecting current sheets
journal, August 2018
- Ng, Jonathan; Hakim, Ammar; Bhattacharjee, A.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 8
Role of electron inertia and electron/ion finite Larmor radius effects in low-beta, magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability
journal, September 2018
- Srinivasan, B.; Hakim, A.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 9
Why does Steady-State Magnetic Reconnection have a Maximum Local Rate of Order 0.1?
journal, February 2017
- Liu, Yi-Hsin; Hesse, M.; Guo, F.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 118, Issue 8
Continuum Kinetic and Multi-Fluid Simulations of Classical Sheaths
text, January 2016
- Cagas, Petr; Hakim, Ammar; Juno, James
- arXiv
Why does steady-state magnetic reconnection have a maximum local rate of order 0.1?
text, January 2016
- Liu, Yi-Hsin; Hesse, M.; Guo, F.
- arXiv
Gyrokinetic continuum simulation of turbulence in a straight open-field-line plasma
text, January 2017
- Shi, E. L.; Hammett, G. W.; Stoltzfus-Dueck, T.
- arXiv
Using the maximum entropy distribution to describe electrons in reconnecting current sheets
text, January 2018
- Ng, Jonathan; Hakim, Ammar; Bhattacharjee, Amitava
- arXiv
An extended MHD study of the 16 October 2015 MMS diffusion region crossing
text, January 2019
- TenBarge, J. M.; Ng, J.; Juno, J.
- arXiv
Drift instabilities in thin current sheets using a two-fluid model with pressure tensor effects
text, January 2019
- Ng, J.; Hakim, A.; Juno, J.
- arXiv