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Title: Three-dimensional stability of current sheets supported by electron pressure anisotropy

Abstract

The stability of electron current sheets embedded within the reconnection exhaust is studied with a 3D fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulation. The electron current layers studied here form self-consistently in a reconnection regime with a moderate guide field, are supported by electron pressure anisotropy with the pressure component parallel to the magnetic field direction larger than the perpendicular components, and extend well beyond electron kinetic scales. In 3D, in addition to drift instabilities common to nearly all reconnection exhausts, the regime considered also exhibits an electromagnetic instability driven by the electron pressure anisotropy. While the fluctuations modulate the current density on small scales, they do not break apart the general structure of the extended electron current layers. Here, the elongated current sheets should therefore persist long enough to be observed both in space observations and in laboratory experiments.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
  3. Univ. of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
OSTI Identifier:
1571602
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1570785
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-19-27576
Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
Grant/Contract Number:  
89233218CNA000001
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physics of Plasmas
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 26; Journal Issue: 10; 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

Citation Formats

Le, Ari Yitzchak, Stanier, Adam John, Daughton, William Scott, Ng, Jonathan, Egedal, Jan, Nystrom, William David, and Bird, Robert Francis. Three-dimensional stability of current sheets supported by electron pressure anisotropy. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1063/1.5125014.
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Le, Ari Yitzchak, Stanier, Adam John, Daughton, William Scott, Ng, Jonathan, Egedal, Jan, Nystrom, William David, & Bird, Robert Francis. Three-dimensional stability of current sheets supported by electron pressure anisotropy. United States. doi:10.1063/1.5125014.
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Le, Ari Yitzchak, Stanier, Adam John, Daughton, William Scott, Ng, Jonathan, Egedal, Jan, Nystrom, William David, and Bird, Robert Francis. Thu . "Three-dimensional stability of current sheets supported by electron pressure anisotropy". United States. doi:10.1063/1.5125014. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1571602.
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@article{osti_1571602,
title = {Three-dimensional stability of current sheets supported by electron pressure anisotropy},
author = {Le, Ari Yitzchak and Stanier, Adam John and Daughton, William Scott and Ng, Jonathan and Egedal, Jan and Nystrom, William David and Bird, Robert Francis},
abstractNote = {The stability of electron current sheets embedded within the reconnection exhaust is studied with a 3D fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulation. The electron current layers studied here form self-consistently in a reconnection regime with a moderate guide field, are supported by electron pressure anisotropy with the pressure component parallel to the magnetic field direction larger than the perpendicular components, and extend well beyond electron kinetic scales. In 3D, in addition to drift instabilities common to nearly all reconnection exhausts, the regime considered also exhibits an electromagnetic instability driven by the electron pressure anisotropy. While the fluctuations modulate the current density on small scales, they do not break apart the general structure of the extended electron current layers. Here, the elongated current sheets should therefore persist long enough to be observed both in space observations and in laboratory experiments.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5125014},
journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
number = 10,
volume = 26,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {10}
}
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DOI:  10.1063/1.5125014
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