Plasmoid statistics in relativistic magnetic reconnection
Abstract
Plasmoids, overdense blobs of plasma containing magnetic fields and high-energy particles, are a self-consistent outcome of the reconnection process in the relativistic regime. Recent two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations have shown that plasmoids can sustain a variety of processes (e.g. mergers, bulk acceleration, growth, and advection) within the reconnection layer. We developed a Monte Carlo code, benchmarked with the recent PIC simulations, to examine the effects of these processes on the steady-state size and momentum distributions of the plasmoid chain. The differential plasmoid size distribution is shown to be a power law, ranging from a few plasma skin depths to ~0.1 of the reconnection layer’s length. The power-law slope is shown to be linearly dependent upon the ratio of the plasmoid acceleration and growth rates, which slightly decreases with increasing plasma magnetization. We perform a detailed comparison of our results with those of recent PIC simulations and briefly discuss the astrophysical implications of our findings through the representative case of flaring events from blazar jets.
- Authors:
-
- Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
- Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
- Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1523832
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0016542
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 475; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 0035-8711
- Publisher:
- Royal Astronomical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; accretion; accretion discs; magnetic reconnection; gamma-ray burst: general; galaxies: jets
Citation Formats
Petropoulou, M., Christie, I. M., Sironi, L., and Giannios, D. Plasmoid statistics in relativistic magnetic reconnection. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1093/mnras/sty033.
Petropoulou, M., Christie, I. M., Sironi, L., & Giannios, D. Plasmoid statistics in relativistic magnetic reconnection. United States. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty033
Petropoulou, M., Christie, I. M., Sironi, L., and Giannios, D. Tue .
"Plasmoid statistics in relativistic magnetic reconnection". United States. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty033. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1523832.
@article{osti_1523832,
title = {Plasmoid statistics in relativistic magnetic reconnection},
author = {Petropoulou, M. and Christie, I. M. and Sironi, L. and Giannios, D.},
abstractNote = {Plasmoids, overdense blobs of plasma containing magnetic fields and high-energy particles, are a self-consistent outcome of the reconnection process in the relativistic regime. Recent two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations have shown that plasmoids can sustain a variety of processes (e.g. mergers, bulk acceleration, growth, and advection) within the reconnection layer. We developed a Monte Carlo code, benchmarked with the recent PIC simulations, to examine the effects of these processes on the steady-state size and momentum distributions of the plasmoid chain. The differential plasmoid size distribution is shown to be a power law, ranging from a few plasma skin depths to ~0.1 of the reconnection layer’s length. The power-law slope is shown to be linearly dependent upon the ratio of the plasmoid acceleration and growth rates, which slightly decreases with increasing plasma magnetization. We perform a detailed comparison of our results with those of recent PIC simulations and briefly discuss the astrophysical implications of our findings through the representative case of flaring events from blazar jets.},
doi = {10.1093/mnras/sty033},
journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
number = 3,
volume = 475,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {1}
}
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:

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Works referencing / citing this record:
Radiative signatures of plasmoid-dominated reconnection in blazar jets
journal, October 2018
- Christie, I. M.; Petropoulou, M.; Sironi, L.
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Figures / Tables found in this record: