Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm21d..07l&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM21D-07
Physics
[2723] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetic Reconnection
Scientific paper
Magnetic reconnection allows a conversion of magnetic energy into particle motion and heat, and it plays an especially important role in regulating the exchange of plasma between the Earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind. Particularly when particle collisions are negligible, as in the space plasmas surrounding Earth, descriptions of reconnection must include kinetic effects. The phase space distribution of the electrons accounting for adiabatic magnetic and electrical trapping has been derived and verified using both spacecraft observations collected in Earth's magnetosphere and particle-in-cell simulations [1]. Based on this solution, the equations of state relevant to reconnection in the kinetic regime give the electron pressure components parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field [2]. The electron pressure anisotropy, which becomes large when the upstream electron beta (ratio of electron pressure to magnetic pressure) is low, governs the formation of elongated electron current sheets during reconnection [2,3]. Recent kinetic simulation runs that make full use of the present generation of petascale supercomputers have allowed tests of the equations of state in a broad range of parameter regimes in varied geometries. With appropriate generalizations, the electron pressure can be described when the ambient plasma conditions are asymmetric. The equations of state have proved fairly robust across geometries with different guide fields and, perhaps most significantly, even with fully 3D evolution. [1] J. Egedal J et al., Phys. of Plasmas 16, 050701 (2009). [2] A. Le et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. 37, L03106 (2010). [3] J. Ng et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 065002 (2011).
Daughton W. S.
Egedal Jan
Karimabadi Homa
Le Anh
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