Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm21d..03d&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM21D-03
Physics
Plasma Physics
[2723] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetic Reconnection, [2744] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetotail, [7835] Space Plasma Physics / Magnetic Reconnection, [7863] Space Plasma Physics / Turbulence
Scientific paper
Recent fully kinetic 3D simulations have demonstrated that flux ropes are generated during both the onset and nonlinear evolution of magnetic reconnection [1]. During the onset phase, primary flux ropes appear within the initial ion-scale current layer, while at later times secondary flux ropes are spontaneously generated within elongated electron-scale current sheets that develop naturally along the separatrices as part of the reconnection process. The formation mechanism and basic properties for both types of flux ropes can be explained from linear kinetic theory of collisionless tearing. However, the evolution and interaction of these flux ropes is intrinsically three-dimensional in nature, and their overall influence on reconnection is not well understood. Here we systematically explore the influence of magnetic shear on this scenario by varying the initial guide field in the range By/Bo=0.3 -1. We focus primarily on symmetric current layers of relevance to the magnetotail, but contrast some of the key predictions with asymmetric layers of relevance to the magnetopause. The observed properties of both the primary and secondary flux ropes are compared with estimates from linear theory and the resulting turbulent spectrum of magnetic field fluctuations is characterized as function of the initial magnetic shear. In the limit of weak guide field, the primary flux ropes can become kink unstable providing another potential mechanism to drive turbulence. Observational signatures of these various 3D processes will be discussed. [1] W. Daughton, V. Roytershteyn, H. Karimabadi et al., Nature Physics, 2011
Daughton W. S.
Karimabadi Homa
Roytershteyn Vadim
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