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

Abstract

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 ~ 6de 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.

Authors:
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [6];  [6]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Physics
  2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  3. West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  4. Southwest Research Inst. (SwRI), San Antonio, TX (United States)
  5. Univ. of Toulouse (France). Inst. of Research in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP)
  6. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States). Heliophysics Science Division
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1441327
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-18-20045
Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007; PRLTAO; TRN: US1900903
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396; 1405166; NNX14AL38G
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 120; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; magnetic reconnection; space and astrophysical plasma; Earth's magnetosphere; satellite data analysis

Citation Formats

Egedal, J., Le, Ari, Daughton, William, Wetherton, Blake, Cassak, P. A., Burch, J. L., Lavraud, B., Dorelli, J., Gershman, D. J., and Avanov, L. A. Spacecraft Observations of Oblique Electron Beams Breaking the Frozen-In Law During Asymmetric Reconnection. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.055101.
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Egedal, J., Le, Ari, Daughton, William, Wetherton, Blake, Cassak, P. A., Burch, J. L., Lavraud, B., Dorelli, J., Gershman, D. J., & Avanov, L. A. Spacecraft Observations of Oblique Electron Beams Breaking the Frozen-In Law During Asymmetric Reconnection. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.055101
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Egedal, J., Le, Ari, Daughton, William, Wetherton, Blake, Cassak, P. A., Burch, J. L., Lavraud, B., Dorelli, J., Gershman, D. J., and Avanov, L. A. Mon . "Spacecraft Observations of Oblique Electron Beams Breaking the Frozen-In Law During Asymmetric Reconnection". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.055101. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1441327.
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@article{osti_1441327,
title = {Spacecraft Observations of Oblique Electron Beams Breaking the Frozen-In Law During Asymmetric Reconnection},
author = {Egedal, J. and Le, Ari and Daughton, William and Wetherton, Blake and Cassak, P. A. and Burch, J. L. and Lavraud, B. and Dorelli, J. and Gershman, D. J. and Avanov, L. A.},
abstractNote = {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 ~ 6de 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.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.055101},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
number = 5,
volume = 120,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {1}
}
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Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.055101
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Cited by: 4 works
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: (a) Simulation profile of the out-of-plane BM magnetic field. The high (low) density separatrices are indicated by the magenta (black) dashed lines. b) Profile of the normal magnetic field BN. As shown by the selected field lines, because BM/BN ≃ 0.5 in much of the region, the magneticmore » field approximately lies in the $xz$-plane defined in the figure.« less
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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    The Role of the Parallel Electric Field in Electron-Scale Dissipation at Reconnecting Currents in the Magnetosheath
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