The influence of intense electric fields on three-dimensional asymmetric magnetic reconnection
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547 (United States)
A three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation of magnetic reconnection in an asymmetric configuration without a guide field and with temperature ratio T{sub i}/T{sub e}>1 demonstrates that intense perpendicular electric fields are produced on the low-density side of the current layer where there is a strong gradient in the plasma density. The simulation shows that the 3-D reconnection rate is unaffected by these intense electric fields, that the electron current layer near the X line remains coherent and does not break up, but that localized regions of strong energy dissipation exist along the low-density separatrices. Near the X line the dominant term in the generalized Ohm's law for the reconnection electric field remains the off-diagonal electron pressure gradient ∂P{sub exy}/∂x. On the low-beta separatrix, however, the anomalous drag −<δnδE{sub y}>/ makes an equally important contribution to that of the pressure gradient to the average E{sub y} field.
- OSTI ID:
- 22228004
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 20, Issue 6; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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