Numerical study of magnetic island coalescence using magnetohydrodynamics with adaptively embedded particle-in-cell model
[1];
[2];
[3];
[2];
[1]
- Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Boston Univ., MA (United States)
Collisionless magnetic reconnection typically requires kinetic treatment that is, in general, computationally expensive compared to fluid-based models. In this study, we use the magnetohydrodynamics with an adaptively embedded particle-in-cell (MHD-AEPIC) model to study the interaction of two magnetic flux ropes. This innovative model embeds one or more adaptive PIC regions into a global MHD simulation domain such that the kinetic treatment is only applied in regions where the kinetic physics is prominent. We compare the simulation results among three cases: (1) MHD with adaptively embedded PIC regions, (2) MHD with statically (or fixed) embedded PIC regions, and (3) a full PIC simulation. The comparison yields good agreement when analyzing their reconnection rates and magnetic island separations as well as the ion pressure tensor elements and ion agyrotropy. In order to reach good agreement among the three cases, large adaptive PIC regions are needed within the MHD domain, which indicates that the magnetic island coalescence problem is highly kinetic in nature, where the coupling between the macro-scale MHD and micro-scale kinetic physics is important.
- Research Organization:
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-09CH11466; SC0021205; AGS-2149787; 80NSSC21K1326; 80NSSC22K0323
- OSTI ID:
- 1957528
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1922542
- Journal Information:
- AIP Advances, Vol. 13, Issue 1; ISSN 2158-3226
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
The island coalescence problem: Scaling of reconnection in extended fluid models including higher-order moments
Structure and Dynamics of Three-Dimensional Magnetotail Reconnection