Role of Ion Kinetic Physics in the Interaction of Magnetic Flux Ropes

Stanier, Adam John; Daughton, William Scott; Chacon, Luis; Karimabadi, Homa; Ng, Jonathan; Huang, Yi-Minh; Hakim, Ammar; Bhattacharjee, Amitava

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.175004

Title: Role of Ion Kinetic Physics in the Interaction of Magnetic Flux Ropes

Journal Article · Wed Oct 21 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.175004· OSTI ID:1457252

^[1];

^[1]; Karimabadi, Homa ^[2]; Ng, Jonathan ^[3]; Huang, Yi-Minh ^[3]; Hakim, Ammar ^[3]; Bhattacharjee, Amitava ^[3]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
SciberQuest, Inc., Del Mar, CA (United States)
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)

To explain many natural magnetized plasma phenomena, it is crucial to understand how rates of collisionless magnetic reconnection scale in large magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) scale systems. Simulations of isolated current sheets conclude such rates are independent of system size and can be reproduced by the Hall-MHD model, but neglect sheet formation and coupling to MHD scales. Here in this study, it is shown for the problem of flux-rope merging, which includes this formation and coupling, that the Hall-MHD model fails to reproduce the kinetic results. The minimum sufficient model must retain ion kinetic effects, which set the ion diffusion region geometry and give time-averaged rates that reduce significantly with system size, leading to different global evolution in large systems.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396

OSTI ID:: 1457252

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1224134

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-15-25385; PRLTAO; TRN: US1901335

Journal Information:: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 115, Issue 17; ISSN 0031-9007

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 30 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (35)

Magnetic Reconnection Priest, Eric; Forbes, Terry https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511525087	book	October 2009
Fast magnetic reconnection with large guide fields Stanier, A.; Simakov, Andrei N.; Chacón, L. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4905629	journal	January 2015
The role of electron dissipation on the rate of collisionless magnetic reconnection Shay, M. A.; Drake, J. F. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 25, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1029/1998GL900036	journal	October 1998
Coalescence of magnetic islands, sloshing, and the pressure problem Knoll, D. A.; Chacón, L. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2173515	journal	March 2006
On the generation and structure of the quadrupole magnetic field in the reconnection process: Comparative simulation study: QUADRUPOLE FIELD SIMULATIONS Karimabadi, H.; Huba, J. D.; Krauss-Varban, D. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 31, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GL019553	journal	April 2004
Scalable parallel implicit solvers for 3D magnetohydrodynamics Chacón, L. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Vol. 125 https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/125/1/012041	journal	July 2008
Flux Rope Dynamics: Experimental Study of Bouncing and Merging Sun, X.; Intrator, T. P.; Dorf, L. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.255001	journal	December 2010
Proton acceleration in antiparallel collisionless magnetic reconnection: Kinetic mechanisms behind the fluid dynamics: PROTON DYNAMICS IN MAGNETIC RECONNECTION Aunai, N.; Belmont, G.; Smets, R. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 116, Issue A9 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JA016688	journal	September 2011
An optimal, parallel, fully implicit Newton–Krylov solver for three-dimensional viscoresistive magnetohydrodynamics Chacón, L. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 15, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2838244	journal	May 2008
Scaling of forced magnetic reconnection in the Hall-magnetohydrodynamic Taylor problem Fitzpatrick, Richard Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 11, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1640378	journal	March 2004
Coalescence of Magnetic Islands Biskamp, D.; Welter, H. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 44, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.44.1069	journal	April 1980
Comparison of multi-fluid moment models with particle-in-cell simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection Wang, Liang; Hakim, Ammar H.; Bhattacharjee, A. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4906063	journal	January 2015
Plasma pressure tensor effects on reconnection: Hybrid and Hall-magnetohydrodynamics simulations Yin, Lin; Winske, Dan Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 10, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1559971	journal	May 2003
Particle trajectories in model current sheets: 1. Analytical solutions Speiser, T. W. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 70, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1029/JZ070i017p04219	journal	September 1965
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
Whistler-mediated magnetic reconnection in large systems: Magnetic flux pileup and the formation of thin current sheets Dorelli, John C. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 108, Issue A3 https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JA009180	journal	January 2003
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
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
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
Current sheets and pressure anisotropy in the reconnection exhaust Le, A.; Egedal, J.; Ng, J. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4861871	journal	January 2014
Particle simulation study of driven magnetic reconnection in a collisionless plasma Horiuchi, Ritoku; Sato, Tetsuya Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 1, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.870894	journal	November 1994
Topological Dissipation and the Small-Scale Fields in Turbulent Gases Parker, E. N. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 174 https://doi.org/10.1086/151512	journal	June 1972
Hall Magnetic Reconnection Rate Huba, J. D.; Rudakov, L. I. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 93, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.175003	journal	October 2004
Scaling of Collisionless Forced Reconnection Wang, Xiaogang; Bhattacharjee, A.; Ma, Z. W. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 87, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.265003	journal	December 2001
Coalescence of Magnetic Islands in the Low-Resistivity, Hall-MHD Regime Knoll, D. A.; Chacón, L. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.135001	journal	April 2006
Alfvénic collisionless magnetic reconnection and the Hall term Shay, M. A.; Drake, J. F.; Rogers, B. N. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 106, Issue A3 https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JA001007	journal	March 2001
Flux Pileup in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection: Bursty Interaction of Large Flux Ropes Karimabadi, H.; Dorelli, J.; Roytershteyn, V. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.025002	journal	July 2011
Role of electron physics in the development of turbulent magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasmas Daughton, W.; Roytershteyn, V.; Karimabadi, H. Nature Physics, Vol. 7, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1965	journal	April 2011
Self-focusing of local plasma currents Fadeev, V. M.; Kvabtskhava, I. F.; Komarov, N. N. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 5, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/5/3/003	journal	September 1965
“Illuminating” electron diffusion regions of collisionless magnetic reconnection using electron agyrotropy: ELECTRON DIFFUSION REGION AND AGYROTROPY Scudder, Jack; Daughton, William Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 113, Issue A6 https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JA013035	journal	June 2008
Toward a transport model of collisionless magnetic reconnection Kuznetsova, Masha M.; Hesse, Michael; Winske, Dan Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 105, Issue A4 https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JA900396	journal	April 2000
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
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
Onset of fast reconnection in Hall magnetohydrodynamics mediated by the plasmoid instability Huang, Yi-Min; Bhattacharjee, A.; Sullivan, Brian P. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3606363	journal	July 2011
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

Cited By (4)

Simulations of anti-parallel reconnection using a nonlocal heat flux closure Ng, Jonathan; Hakim, Ammar; Bhattacharjee, A. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 24, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4993195	journal	August 2017
Study of magnetic reconnection in large-scale magnetic island coalescence via spatially coupled MHD and PIC simulations Makwana, Kirit D.; Keppens, Rony; Lapenta, Giovanni Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5037774	journal	August 2018
Plasma Energization in Colliding Magnetic Flux Ropes Du, Senbei; Guo, Fan; Zank, Gary P. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 867, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aae30e	journal	October 2018
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