Spacecraft Observations of Oblique Electron Beams Breaking the Frozen-In Law During Asymmetric Reconnection

Egedal, J.; Le, Ari; Daughton, William; Wetherton, Blake; Cassak, P. A.; Burch, J. L.; Lavraud, B.; Dorelli, J.; Gershman, D. J.; Avanov, L. A.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.055101

Title: Spacecraft Observations of Oblique Electron Beams Breaking the Frozen-In Law During Asymmetric Reconnection

Journal Article · 29 January 2018 · Physical Review Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.055101 · OSTI ID:1441327

Egedal, J. ^[1];

^[2];

^[2]; Wetherton, Blake ^[1]; Cassak, P. A. ^[3]; Burch, J. L. ^[4]; Lavraud, B. ^[5]; Dorelli, J. ^[6]; Gershman, D. J. ^[6]; Avanov, L. A. ^[6]

Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Physics
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Southwest Research Inst. (SwRI), San Antonio, TX (United States)
Univ. of Toulouse (France). Inst. of Research in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States). Heliophysics Science Division

Fully kinetic simulations of asymmetric magnetic reconnection reveal the presence of magnetic-field-aligned beams of electrons flowing toward the topological magnetic x line. Within the ~ 6d_e electron-diffusion region, the beams become oblique to the local magnetic field, providing a unique signature of the electron-diffusion region where the electron frozen-in law is broken. These numerical predictions are confirmed by in situ Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft observations during asymmetric reconnection at Earth’s dayside magnetopause.

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Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396; 1405166; NNX14AL38G

OSTI ID:: 1441327

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-18-20045; PRLTAO; TRN: US1900903

Journal Information:: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 120, Issue 5; ISSN 0031-9007

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 16 works

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