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:
-
[2];
[2];
- 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
- 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. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.055101.
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
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.
@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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Cited by: 14 works
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Figures / Tables:
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 »
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Works referencing / citing this record:
Crescent‐Shaped Electron Distributions at the Nonreconnecting Magnetopause: Magnetospheric Multiscale Observations
journal, March 2019
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