Development of Electron Holes and Anomalous Resistivity in 3-D Magnetic Reconnection

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

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7835 Magnetic Reconnection

Scientific paper

In the case of a simple reversed magnetic field, simulations in three dimensions have revealed that collisionless magnetic reconnection remains nearly two-dimensional. Reconnection in the presence of a guide field is much more dynamic. The guide field slows the convection of electrons away from the x-line, which enables the reconnection electric field to accelerate electrons in this region to very high velocity. The resulting magnetic-field-aligned electron beams are Buneman unstable. The resulting turbulence evolved into distinct nonlinear structures consisting of localized regions of bipolar parallel electric field, corresponding to electron holes. The electron holes are localized both parallel and transverse to the magnetic field with scale lengths of 10's of Debye lengths. Such holes have been extensively studied in the auroral region of the ionosphere with FAST data. The simulations, in combination with the recent observations of intense bipolar parallel electric fields at the magnetopause in the Polar data, are strong evidence that these objects play a central role in dissipating magnetic energy during magnetic reconnection. In the simulations these intense parallel electric fields scatter the electron beams, causing strong electron heating and a large effective resistivity. The nonlinear development of the system is being explored with full particle simulations using up to one billion particles to understand the conditions under which these structures develop and their impact on electron energization and the rates of reconnection in magnetospheric and astrophysical systems. Comparisons with data from magnetospheric observations will be presented.

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