The Relation between Ion Temperature Anisotropy and Formation of Slow Shocks in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection

Details The Relation between Ion Temperature Anisotropy and Formation of Slow Shocks in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection The Relation between Ion Temperature Anisotropy and Formation of Slow Shocks in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection

2012-01-20

arxiv.org/abs/1201.4213v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

28 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in JGR

Scientific paper

We perform a two-dimensional simulation by using an electromagnetic hybrid code to study the formation of slow-mode shocks in collisionless magnetic reconnection in low beta plasmas, and we focus on the relation between the formation of slow shocks and the ion temperature anisotropy enhanced at the shock downstream region. It is known that as magnetic reconnection develops, the parallel temperature along the magnetic field becomes large in association with the anisotropic PSBL (plasma sheet boundary layer) ion beams, and this temperature anisotropy has a tendency to suppress the formation of slow shocks. Based on our simulation result, we found that the slow shock formation is suppressed due to the large temperature anisotropy near the X-type region, but the ion temperature anisotropy relaxes with increasing the distance from the magnetic neutral point. As a result, two pairs of current structures, which are the strong evidence of dissipation of magnetic field in slow shocks, are formed at the distance x > 115 ion inertial lengths from the neutral point.

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