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Title: 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:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [2]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  2. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
  3. 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.
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Petropoulou, M., Christie, I. M., Sironi, L., & Giannios, D. Plasmoid statistics in relativistic magnetic reconnection. United States. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty033
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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.
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@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}
}
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Journal Article:
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Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty033
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Cited by: 5 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Plot of the initial plasmoid momentum versus the initial plasmoid location in the layer for plasma magnetization $σ$ = 10 (open symbols). All plasmoids formed in the layer during the course of the PIC simulation are taken into account. Data are obtained from SGP16. The horizontal black dashedmore » lines indicate the asymptotic momentum $\sqrt{σ}$ . The average initial four-velocity of the plasmoid distribution (solid green line) can be well described by equation (1) shown by the magenta dash–dotted line. Dashed green lines indicate the one standard deviation of $p$0.« less
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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.
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 482, Issue 1
    • DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty2636

    Radio emission of the Crab and Crab-like pulsars
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    • Lyubarsky, Yuri
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 483, Issue 2
    • DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty3233

    Interplasmoid Compton scattering and the Compton dominance of BL Lacs
    journal, December 2019

    • Christie, I. M.; Petropoulou, M.; Sironi, L.
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 492, Issue 1
    • DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz3265

    Relativistic Plasmoid Instability in Pair Plasmas
    journal, September 2019

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