Do dispersive waves play a role in collisionless magnetic reconnection?
Abstract
Using fully kinetic simulations, we demonstrate that the properly normalized reconnection rate is fast ~0.1 for guide fields up to 80× larger than the reconnecting field and is insensitive to both the system size and the ion to electron mass ratio. These results challenge conventional explanations of reconnection based on fast dispersive waves, which are completely absent for sufficiently strong guide fields. In this regime, the thickness of the diffusion layer is set predominantly by the electron inertial length with an inner sublayer that is controlled by finite gyro-radius effects. As the Alfvén velocity becomes relativistic for very strong guide fields, the displacement current becomes important and strong deviations from charge neutrality occur, resulting in the build-up of intense electric fields which absorb a portion of the magnetic energy release. Over longer time scales, secondary magnetic islands are generated near the active x-line while an electron inertial scale Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is driven within the outflow. These secondary instabilities give rise to time variations in the reconnection rate but do not alter the average value.
- Authors:
-
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering; SciberQuest Inc., Del Mar, CA (United States)
- Space Science Inst., Boulder, CO (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1565172
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physics of Plasmas
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 21; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; Physics
Citation Formats
Liu, Yi-Hsin, Daughton, W., Karimabadi, H., Li, H., and Peter Gary, S. Do dispersive waves play a role in collisionless magnetic reconnection?. United States: N. p., 2014.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.4865579.
Liu, Yi-Hsin, Daughton, W., Karimabadi, H., Li, H., & Peter Gary, S. Do dispersive waves play a role in collisionless magnetic reconnection?. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4865579
Liu, Yi-Hsin, Daughton, W., Karimabadi, H., Li, H., and Peter Gary, S. Sat .
"Do dispersive waves play a role in collisionless magnetic reconnection?". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4865579. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1565172.
@article{osti_1565172,
title = {Do dispersive waves play a role in collisionless magnetic reconnection?},
author = {Liu, Yi-Hsin and Daughton, W. and Karimabadi, H. and Li, H. and Peter Gary, S.},
abstractNote = {Using fully kinetic simulations, we demonstrate that the properly normalized reconnection rate is fast ~0.1 for guide fields up to 80× larger than the reconnecting field and is insensitive to both the system size and the ion to electron mass ratio. These results challenge conventional explanations of reconnection based on fast dispersive waves, which are completely absent for sufficiently strong guide fields. In this regime, the thickness of the diffusion layer is set predominantly by the electron inertial length with an inner sublayer that is controlled by finite gyro-radius effects. As the Alfvén velocity becomes relativistic for very strong guide fields, the displacement current becomes important and strong deviations from charge neutrality occur, resulting in the build-up of intense electric fields which absorb a portion of the magnetic energy release. Over longer time scales, secondary magnetic islands are generated near the active x-line while an electron inertial scale Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is driven within the outflow. These secondary instabilities give rise to time variations in the reconnection rate but do not alter the average value.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4865579},
journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
number = 2,
volume = 21,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2014},
month = {Sat Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2014}
}
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