The electron-frame dissipation measure in collisionless magnetic reconnection

Details The electron-frame dissipation measure in collisionless magnetic reconnection The electron-frame dissipation measure in collisionless magnetic reconnection

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm23b2045z&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM23B-2045

Physics

Plasma Physics

[2723] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetic Reconnection, [2753] Magnetospheric Physics / Numerical Modeling, [7526] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Magnetic Reconnection, [7827] Space Plasma Physics / Kinetic And Mhd Theory

Scientific paper

The electron diffusion region (EDR) is the innermost critical structure of collisionless magnetic reconnection. It has been often identified by the electron's nonidealness (E + ve x B ≠ 0). However, recent particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations have exhibited puzzling structures of the EDRs, and their interpretation is a subject of controversy. In this presentation, instead of the electron nonidealness, we propose an "electron-frame dissipation measure" to identify a dissipation region (DR). It is an Ohmic dissipation in the rest frame of the electron fluid and it is generalized as a frame-independent quantity. By using two-dimensional PIC simulations, we show that our measure accurately locates a compact DR in general cases. We further discuss the relevance to the MHD energy budget, the comparison with conventional EDRs, and the influence of the electron physics. We believe that our measure will benefit the upcoming Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, by providing a generic criterion to identify the DR.

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