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Title: 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:
; ; ;  [1]; ;  [2]; ;  [3]
  1. Center for Heliophysics, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
  3. 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:

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Coalescence instability of magnetic islands
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Flux Pileup in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection: Bursty Interaction of Large Flux Ropes
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A review of the 0.1 reconnection rate problem
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An Extended MHD Study of the 16 October 2015 MMS Diffusion Region Crossing
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Continuum kinetic and multi-fluid simulations of classical sheaths
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Simulations of anti-parallel reconnection using a nonlocal heat flux closure
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Study of magnetic reconnection in large-scale magnetic island coalescence via spatially coupled MHD and PIC simulations
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Using the maximum entropy distribution to describe electrons in reconnecting current sheets
journal, August 2018


Why does Steady-State Magnetic Reconnection have a Maximum Local Rate of Order 0.1?
journal, February 2017