Kinetic Simulations of Magnetic Reconnection in Plasma With Different β Values

Details Kinetic Simulations of Magnetic Reconnection in Plasma With Different β Values Kinetic Simulations of Magnetic Reconnection in Plasma With Different β Values

Dec 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003agufmsh31a1077b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003, abstract #SH31A-1077

Computer Science

Sound

2722 Forecasting, 2744 Magnetotail, 2764 Plasma Sheet, 7835 Magnetic Reconnection, 7871 Waves And Instabilities

Scientific paper

We present kinetic simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection in Harris current sheets. We simulate plasmas with different β values by varying the guide fields: high guide field correspond to low β . For all values of β > me/m_i, fast reconnection is made possible by the separation of the electron and ion dynamics in the reconnection region. The primary mechanism that relaxes the frozen-in conditions is given by the non-gyrotropic electron pressure terms for all the guide fields considered. The reconnection rate is then enhanced by the Whistler dynamics in high β plasmas and by the Kinetic Alfvén Waves dynamics in lower β plasmas. In the latter case, the ion sound radius takes the place of the ion inertial length as the length scale of interest. The guide field diminishes the reconnection rate and decreases the reconnection saturation level. The ion and electron flow pattern, acceleration, and heating are strongly influenced by the guide field. The simulations are also preliminary to a closer comparison with the results of the Reconnection Scaling eXperiment (RSX) at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which allows one to study plasmas with different β values.

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