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Effective Resistivity in Relativistic Collisionless Reconnection

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]
  1. Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Anton Pannekoek Inst., Amsterdam (Netherlands)
  2. Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
  3. Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); Flatiron Institute, New York, NY (United States)
  4. Katholieke Univ. Leuven, Heverlee (Belgium); Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA - IASB), Brussels (Belgium)
  5. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  6. Katholieke Univ. Leuven, Heverlee (Belgium)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Magnetic reconnection can power spectacular high-energy astrophysical phenomena by producing nonthermal energy distributions in highly magnetized regions around compact objects. By means of two-dimensional fully kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, we investigate relativistic collisionless plasmoid-mediated reconnection in magnetically dominated pair plasmas with and without a guide field. In X-points, where diverging flows result in a nondiagonal thermal pressure tensor, a finite residence time for particles gives rise to a localized collisionless effective resistivity. Here, for the first time for relativistic reconnection in a fully developed plasmoid chain, we identify the mechanisms driving the nonideal electric field using a full Ohm law by means of a statistical analysis based on our PIC simulations. We show that the nonideal electric field is predominantly driven by gradients of nongyrotropic thermal pressures. We propose a kinetic physics motivated nonuniform effective resistivity model that is negligible on global scales and becomes significant only locally in X-points. It captures the properties of collisionless reconnection with the aim of mimicking its essentials in nonideal magnetohydrodynamic descriptions. This effective resistivity model provides a viable opportunity to design physically grounded global models for reconnection-powered high-energy emission.
Research Organization:
Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States); Columbia University, New York, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO); USDOE Office of Science (SC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0021254
OSTI ID:
2421846
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2472498
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 950; ISSN 0004-637X
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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