Strongly localized magnetic reconnection by the super-Alfvénic shear flow

Liu, Yi -Hsin; Hesse, M.; Guo, F.; Li, H.; Nakamura, T. K. M.

doi:10.1063/1.5042539

Title: Strongly localized magnetic reconnection by the super-Alfvénic shear flow

Journal Article · 01 August 2018 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5042539 · OSTI ID:1543874

^[1];

^[2]; Guo, F. ^[3]; Li, H. ^[3];

^[4]

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (United States)
Univ. of Bergen, Bergen (Norway); Southwest Research Inst., San Antonio, TX (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Australian Academy of Sciences, Graz (Austria)

We demonstrate that the dragging of the magnetic field by the super-Alfvénic shear flows out of the reconnection plane can strongly localize the reconnection x-line in collisionless pair plasmas, reversing the current direction at the x-line. Reconnection with this new morphology, which is impossible in resistive-magnetohydrodynamics, is enabled by the particle inertia. Surprisingly, the quasi-steady reconnection rate remains of order 0.1 even though the aspect ratio of the local x-line geometry is larger than unity, which completely excludes the role of tearing physics. Here, we explain this by examining the transport of the reconnected magnetic flux and the opening angle made by the upstream magnetic field, concluding that the reconnection rate is still limited by the constraint imposed at the inflow region. Based on these findings, we propose that this often observed fast rate value of order 0.1 itself, in general, is an upper bound value determined by the upstream constraint, independent of the localization mechanism and dissipation therein.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

OSTI ID:: 1543874

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 25; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (70)

Interaction of magnetic reconnection and Kelvin-Helmholtz modes for large magnetic shear: 2. Reconnection trigger: MA ET AL. Ma, Xuanye; Otto, Antonius; Delamere, Peter A. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 119, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JA019225	journal	February 2014
On the electron diffusion region in planar, asymmetric, systems: diffusion region in asymmetric systems Hesse, Michael; Aunai, Nicolas; Sibeck, David Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 41, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL061586	journal	December 2014
Magnetospheric Multiscale observations of magnetic reconnection associated with Kelvin-Helmholtz waves: KH-Associated Magnetic Reconnection Eriksson, S.; Lavraud, B.; Wilder, F. D. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 43, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068783	journal	June 2016
Kinetic evidence of magnetic reconnection due to Kelvin-Helmholtz waves: RECONNECTION DUE TO KHW Li, W.; André, M.; Khotyaintsev, Yu. V. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 43, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069192	journal	June 2016
Magnetic reconnection with a fast perpendicular sheared flow: RECONNECTION WITH FAST FLOW SHEAR Ma, Xuanye; Otto, Antonius; Delamere, Peter A. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 121, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA023107	journal	October 2016
On the Collisionless Asymmetric Magnetic Reconnection Rate Liu, Yi-Hsin; Hesse, M.; Cassak, P. A. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 45, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076460	journal	April 2018
The influence of out-of-plane shear flow on Hall magnetic reconnection and FTE generation: FTE GENERATION DUE TO SHEAR FLOW Chen, Yangao; Xiao, Chijie; Wang, Xiaogang Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 118, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1002/jgra.50417	journal	July 2013
Three-dimensional dynamics of vortex-induced reconnection and comparison with THEMIS observations: VORTEX-INDUCED RECONNECTION IN 3-D Nakamura, T. K. M.; Daughton, W.; Karimabadi, H. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 118, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1002/jgra.50547	journal	September 2013
What Can We Learn about Magnetotail Reconnection from 2D PIC Harris-Sheet Simulations? Goldman, M. V.; Newman, D. L.; Lapenta, G. Space Science Reviews, Vol. 199, Issue 1-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-015-0154-y	journal	May 2015
Explosive X-point collapse in relativistic magnetically dominated plasma Lyutikov, Maxim; Sironi, Lorenzo; Komissarov, Serguei S. Journal of Plasma Physics, Vol. 83, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022377817000629	journal	December 2017
A review of the 0.1 reconnection rate problem Cassak, P. A.; Liu, Y. -H.; Shay, M. A. Journal of Plasma Physics, Vol. 83, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022377817000666	journal	September 2017
The scaling of collisionless, magnetic reconnection for large systems Shay, M. A.; Drake, J. F.; Rogers, B. N. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 26, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GL900481	journal	July 1999
Kelvin-Helmholtz instability at the magnetotail boundary: MHD simulation and comparison with Geotail observations Otto, A.; Fairfield, D. H. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 105, Issue A9 https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JA000312	journal	September 2000
Geotail observations of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability at the equatorial magnetotail boundary for parallel northward fields Fairfield, D. H.; Otto, A.; Mukai, T. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 105, Issue A9 https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JA000316	journal	September 2000
Geospace Environmental Modeling (GEM) Magnetic Reconnection Challenge Birn, J.; Drake, J. F.; Shay, M. A. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 106, Issue A3 https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JA900449	journal	March 2001
Cluster observations of multiple dipolarization fronts: MULTIPLE DIPOLARIZATION FRONTS Hwang, K. -J.; Goldstein, M. L.; Lee, E. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 116, Issue A5 https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JA015742	journal	April 2011
Tearing instability, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, and magnetic reconnection Chen, Q.; Otto, A.; Lee, L. C. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 102, Issue A1 https://doi.org/10.1029/96JA03144	journal	January 1997
Nonlocal stability analysis of the MHD Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in a compressible plasma Miura, Akira; Pritchett, P. L. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 87, Issue A9 https://doi.org/10.1029/JA087iA09p07431	journal	January 1982
Generation of vortex-induced tearing mode instability at the magnetopause Pu, Zu Yin; Yei, Ming; Liu, Zhen Xin Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 95, Issue A7 https://doi.org/10.1029/JA095iA07p10559	journal	January 1990
Sweet's mechanism for merging magnetic fields in conducting fluids Parker, E. N. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 62, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1029/JZ062i004p00509	journal	December 1957
Turbulent mass transfer caused by vortex induced reconnection in collisionless magnetospheric plasmas Nakamura, T. K. M.; Hasegawa, H.; Daughton, W. Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01579-0	journal	November 2017
Fully kinetic simulations of undriven magnetic reconnection with open boundary conditions Daughton, William; Scudder, Jack; Karimabadi, Homa Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2218817	journal	July 2006
Collisionless magnetic reconnection in large-scale electron-positron plasmas Daughton, William; Karimabadi, Homa Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 14, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2749494	journal	July 2007
Instability of current sheets and formation of plasmoid chains Loureiro, N. F.; Schekochihin, A. A.; Cowley, S. C. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 14, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2783986	journal	October 2007
The Hall fields and fast magnetic reconnection Drake, J. F.; Shay, M. A.; Swisdak, M. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 15, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2901194	journal	January 2008
Energy release and transfer in guide field reconnection Birn, J.; Hesse, M. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3299388	journal	January 2010
Scaling laws of resistive magnetohydrodynamic reconnection in the high-Lundquist-number, plasmoid-unstable regime Huang, Yi-Min; Bhattacharjee, A. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3420208	journal	June 2010
Scaling of the magnetic reconnection rate with symmetric shear flow Cassak, P. A.; Otto, A. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3609771	journal	July 2011
The structure of the magnetic reconnection exhaust boundary Liu, Yi-Hsin; Drake, J. F.; Swisdak, M. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3685755	journal	February 2012
Coherent structures, intermittent turbulence, and dissipation in high-temperature plasmas Karimabadi, H.; Roytershteyn, V.; Wan, M. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 20, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4773205	journal	January 2013
Do dispersive waves play a role in collisionless magnetic reconnection? Liu, Yi-Hsin; Daughton, W.; Karimabadi, H. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4865579	journal	February 2014
Collisionless reconnection in the large guide field regime: Gyrokinetic versus particle-in-cell simulations TenBarge, J. M.; Daughton, W.; Karimabadi, H. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4867068	journal	February 2014
Asymmetric magnetic reconnection with out-of-plane shear flows in a two dimensional hybrid model Wang, Lin; Wang, Xiao-Gang; Wang, Xian-Qu Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4919965	journal	May 2015
Suppression of collisionless magnetic reconnection in asymmetric current sheets Liu, Yi-Hsin; Hesse, Michael Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4954818	journal	June 2016
Dynamo-driven plasmoid formation from a current-sheet instability Ebrahimi, F. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4972218	journal	December 2016
Nonlinear evolution of resistive tearing mode instability with shear flow and viscosity Ofman, L.; Morrison, P. J.; Steinolfson, R. S. Physics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics, Vol. 5, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.860523	journal	February 1993
Magnetic reconnection via current sheets Biskamp, D. Physics of Fluids, Vol. 29, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.865670	journal	January 1986
The diffusion region in collisionless magnetic reconnection Hesse, Michael; Schindler, Karl; Birn, Joachim Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 6, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.873436	journal	May 1999
The Reconnection Rate of Magnetic Fields Parker, E. N. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 180 https://doi.org/10.1086/151959	journal	February 1973
Parsec‐Scale Properties of Markarian 501 Giroletti, M.; Giovannini, G.; Feretti, L. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 600, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1086/379663	journal	January 2004
The Trigger Mechanism of Solar Flares in a Coronal Arcade with Reversed Magnetic Shear Kusano, K.; Maeshiro, T.; Yokoyama, T. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 610, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1086/421547	journal	July 2004
Development of a Turbulent Outflow During Electron‐Positron Magnetic Reconnection Swisdak, M.; Liu, Yi‐Hsin; Drake, J. F. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 680, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1086/588088	journal	June 2008
Electron Acceleration by Multi-Island Coalescence Oka, M.; Phan, T. -D.; Krucker, S. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 714, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/714/1/915	journal	April 2010
Particle Acceleration and Plasma Dynamics During Magnetic Reconnection in the Magnetically Dominated Regime Guo, Fan; Liu, Yi-Hsin; Daughton, William The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 806, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/806/2/167	journal	June 2015
Out-of-plane shear flow effects on fast magnetic reconnection in a two-dimensional hybrid simulation model Wang, Lin; Wang, Xian-Qu; Wang, Xiao-Gang Chinese Physics B, Vol. 23, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-1056/23/2/025203	journal	February 2014
Advances in petascale kinetic plasma simulation with VPIC and Roadrunner Bowers, K. J.; Albright, B. J.; Yin, L. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Vol. 180 https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/180/1/012055	journal	July 2009
Relativistic Reconnection: an Efficient Source of Non-Thermal Particles Sironi, Lorenzo; Spitkovsky, Anatoly The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 783, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/783/1/L21	journal	February 2014
Relativistic MHD simulations of core-collapse GRB jets: 3D instabilities and magnetic dissipation Bromberg, Omer; Tchekhovskoy, Alexander Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 456, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv2591	journal	December 2015
Formation of Plasmoid Chains in Magnetic Reconnection Samtaney, R.; Loureiro, N. F.; Uzdensky, D. A. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.105004	journal	September 2009
Fast Magnetic Reconnection in the Plasmoid-Dominated Regime Uzdensky, D. A.; Loureiro, N. F.; Schekochihin, A. A. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.235002	journal	December 2010
New Measure of the Dissipation Region in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection Zenitani, Seiji; Hesse, Michael; Klimas, Alex Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.195003	journal	May 2011
Formation of Hard Power Laws in the Energetic Particle Spectra Resulting from Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection Guo, Fan; Li, Hui; Daughton, William Physical Review Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.155005	journal	October 2014
Why does Steady-State Magnetic Reconnection have a Maximum Local Rate of Order 0.1? Liu, Yi-Hsin; Hesse, M.; Guo, F. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 118, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.085101	journal	February 2017
Role of Dispersive Waves in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection Rogers, B. N.; Denton, R. E.; Drake, J. F. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 87, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.195004	journal	October 2001
Magnetic Reconnection in the Two-Dimensional Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability Knoll, D. A.; Chacón, L. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 88, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.215003	journal	May 2002
Collisionless Reconnection in an Electron-Positron Plasma Bessho, N.; Bhattacharjee, A. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.245001	journal	December 2005
Magnetic Reconnection in Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas Zweibel, Ellen G.; Yamada, Masaaki Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 47, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-astro-082708-101726	journal	September 2009
Kinetic Study of Radiation-Reaction-Limited Particle Acceleration During the Relaxation of Unstable Force-Free Equilibria Yuan, Yajie; Nalewajko, Krzysztof; Zrake, Jonathan The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 828, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/828/2/92	journal	September 2016
The Extent of Power-Law Energy Spectra in Collisionless Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in pair Plasmas Werner, G. R.; Uzdensky, D. A.; Cerutti, B. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 816, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8205/816/1/L8	journal	December 2015
Scaling laws of resistive magnetohydrodynamic reconnection in the high-Lundquist-number, plasmoid-unstable regime Huang, Yi-Min; Bhattacharjee, A. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1003.5951	text	January 2010
Electron Acceleration by Multi-Island Coalescence Oka, M.; Phan, T. -D.; Krucker, S. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1004.1154	text	January 2010
Fast magnetic reconnection in the plasmoid-dominated regime Uzdensky, D. A.; Loureiro, N. F.; Schekochihin, A. A. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1008.3330	text	January 2010
New Measure of the Dissipation Region in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection Zenitani, Seiji; Hesse, Michael; Klimas, Alex arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1104.3846	text	January 2011
Collisionless Reconnection in the Large Guide Field Regime: Gyrokinetic Versus Particle-in-Cell Simulations TenBarge, J. M.; Daughton, W.; Karimabadi, H. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1312.5166	text	January 2013
Formation of Hard Power-laws in the Energetic Particle Spectra Resulting from Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection Guo, Fan; Li, Hui; Daughton, William arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1405.4040	text	January 2014
The extent of power-law energy spectra in collisionless relativistic magnetic reconnection in pair plasmas Werner, G. R.; Uzdensky, D. A.; Cerutti, B. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1409.8262	text	January 2014
Relativistic MHD simulations of core-collapse GRB jets: 3D instabilities and magnetic dissipation Bromberg, Omer; Tchekhovskoy, Alexander arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1508.02721	text	January 2015
Suppression of collisionless magnetic reconnection in asymmetric current sheets Liu, Yi-Hsin; Hesse, Michael arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1602.05118	text	January 2016
Kinetic study of radiation-reaction-limited particle acceleration during the relaxation of unstable force-free equilibria Yuan, Yajie; Nalewajko, Krzysztof; Zrake, Jonathan arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1604.03179	text	January 2016
Why does steady-state magnetic reconnection have a maximum local rate of order 0.1? Liu, Yi-Hsin; Hesse, M.; Guo, F. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1611.07859	text	January 2016

Cited By (1)

Dayside Magnetopause Reconnection: Its Dependence on Solar Wind and Magnetosheath Conditions Koga, D.; Gonzalez, W. D.; Souza, V. M. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 124, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019ja026889	journal	November 2019

Similar Records

The Impact of Alfvénic Shear Flow on Magnetic Reconnection and Turbulence

Journal Article · 2025 · The Astrophysical Journal. Letters · OSTI ID:2998621

Ervin, Tamar; Mallet, Alfred; Eriksson, Stefan; +9 more

Suppression of the collisionless tearing mode by flow shear: implications for reconnection onset in the Alfvénic solar wind

Journal Article · 2025 · Journal of Plasma Physics · OSTI ID:2566831

Mallet, A.; Eriksson, S.; Swisdak, M.; +1 more

Scaling of Magnetic Reconnection in Relativistic Collisionless Pair Plasmas

Journal Article · 2015 · Physical Review Letters · OSTI ID:1565375

Liu, Yi-Hsin; Guo, Fan; Daughton, William; +2 more

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Physics

Title: Strongly localized magnetic reconnection by the super-Alfvénic shear flow

Citation Formats

References (70)

Cited By (1)

Similar Records

Related Subjects