Are Solar Wind Reconnection Events Fossil Sites?

Details Are Solar Wind Reconnection Events Fossil Sites? Are Solar Wind Reconnection Events Fossil Sites?

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsh54b..05v&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SH54B-05

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

[7526] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Magnetic Reconnection

Scientific paper

Studies of reconnection in the solar wind led by Gosling and collaborators have revealed surprising results that are posing serious challenges to current theoretical understanding of the reconnection process. This include observations of prolonged quasi-steady reconnection, low magnetic shear angles, and no real bulk heating (i.e., full thermalization rather than appearance of heating due to two beams) or substantial particle acceleration. In contrast, the theoretical expectations have been that reconnection leads to significant bulk heating and particle acceleration. Similarly, recent full particle simulations indicate that reconnection is generally time dependent. We have recently re-examined this apparent discrepancy between observations and theory and propose a resolution to these puzzling observations based on the concept of fossil reconnection site. We have performed large scale 2D fully kinetic simulations of reconnection to very long times to gain an understanding of reconnection structure as they would be seen in the observations. We find that reconnection weakens in time and approaches an asymptotic state which we refer to as fossil state. The properties of the fossil reconnection state explain several of the puzzling aspects of the observations. The implications of these findings for studies of solar wind reconnection are discussed.

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