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Register a new userOn the collisionless asymmetric magnetic reconnection rate
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A prediction of the steady-state reconnection electric field in asymmetric reconnection is obtained by maximizing the reconnection rate as a function of the opening angle made by the upstream magnetic field on the weak magnetic field (magnetosheath) side. The prediction is within a factor of two of the widely examined asymmetric reconnection model [Cassak and Shay, Phys. Plasmas 14, 102114, 2007] in the collisionless limit, and they scale the same over a wide parameter regime. The previous model had the effective aspect ratio of the diffusion region as a free parameter, which simulations and observations suggest is on the order of 0.1, but the present model has no free parameters. In conjunction with the symmetric case [Liu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 085101, 2017], this work further suggests that this nearly universal number 0.1, essentially the normalized fast reconnection rate, is a geometrical factor arising from maximizing the reconnection rate within magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)-scale constraints.
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Electron dynamics surrounding the X-line in magnetopause-type asymmetric reconnection is investigated using a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. We study electron properties of three characteristic regions in the vicinity of the X-line. The fluid properties, velocity distribution functions (VDFs), and orbits are studied and cross-compared. On the magnetospheric side of the X-line, the normal electric field enhances the electron meandering motion from the magnetosheath side. The motion leads to a crescent-shaped component in the electron VDF, in agreement with recent studies. On the magnetosheath side of the X-line, the magnetic field line is so stretched in the third dimension that its curvature radius is comparable with typical electron Larmor radius. The electron motion becomes nonadiabatic, and therefore the electron idealness is no longer expected to hold. Around the middle of the outflow regions, the electron nonidealness is coincident with the region of the nonadiabatic motion. Finally, we introduce a finite-time mixing fraction (FTMF) to evaluate electron mixing. The FTMF marks the magnetospheric side of the X-line, where the nonideal energy dissipation occurs.
Using fully kinetic simulations, we study the suppression of asymmetric reconnection in the limit where the diamagnetic drift speed >> Alfven speed and the magnetic shear angle is moderate. We demonstrate that the slippage between electrons and the magnetic flux facilitates reconnection, and can even result in fast reconnection that lacks one of the outflow jets. Through comparing a case where the diamagnetic drift is supported by the temperature gradient with a companion case that has a density gradient instead, we identify a robust suppression mechanism. The drift of the x-line is slowed down locally by the asymmetric nature of the current sheet and the resulting tearing modes, then the x-line is run over and swallowed by the faster-moving following flux.
Results of the first validation of large guide field, $B_g / delta B_0 gg 1$, gyrokinetic simulations of magnetic reconnection at a fusion and solar corona relevant $beta_i = 0.01$ and solar wind relevant $beta_i = 1$ are presented, where $delta B_0$ is the reconnecting field. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations scan a wide range of guide magnetic field strength to test for convergence to the gyrokinetic limit. The gyrokinetic simulations display a high degree of morphological symmetry, to which the PIC simulations converge when $beta_i B_g / delta B_0 gtrsim 1$ and $B_g / delta B_0 gg 1$. In the regime of convergence, the reconnection rate, relative energy conversion, and overall magnitudes are found to match well between the PIC and gyrokinetic simulations, implying that gyrokinetics is capable of making accurate predictions well outside its regime of formal applicability. These results imply that in the large guide field limit many quantities resulting from the nonlinear evolution of reconnection scale linearly with the guide field.
Modeling collisionless magnetic reconnection rate is an outstanding challenge in basic plasma physics research. While the seemingly universal rate of an order $mathcal{O}(0.1)$ is often reported in the low-$beta$ regime, it is not clear how reconnection rate scales with a higher plasma $beta$. Due to the complexity of the pressure tensor, the available reconnection rate model is limited to the low plasma-$beta$ regime, where the thermal pressure is arguably negligible. However, the thermal pressure effect becomes important when $beta gtrsim mathcal{O}(1)$. Using first-principle kinetic simulations, we show that both the reconnection rate and outflow speed drop as $beta$ gets larger. A simple analytical framework is derived to take account of the self-generated pressure anisotropy and pressure gradient in the force-balance around the diffusion region, explaining the varying trend of key quantities and reconnection rates in these simulations with different $beta$. The predicted scaling of the normalized reconnection rate is $simeq mathcal{O}(0.1/sqrt{beta_{i0}})$ in the high $beta$ limit, where $beta_{i0}$ is the ion $beta$ of the inflow plasma.
The current understanding of MHD turbulence envisions turbulent eddies which are anisotropic in all three directions. In the plane perpendicular to the local mean magnetic field, this implies that such eddies become current-sheet-like structures at small scales. We analyze the role of magnetic reconnection in these structures and conclude that reconnection becomes important at a scale $lambdasim L S_L^{-4/7}$, where $S_L$ is the outer-scale ($L$) Lundquist number and $lambda$ is the smallest of the field-perpendicular eddy dimensions. This scale is larger than the scale set by the resistive diffusion of eddies, therefore implying a fundamentally different route to energy dissipation than that predicted by the Kolmogorov-like phenomenology. In particular, our analysis predicts the existence of the sub-inertial, reconnection interval of MHD turbulence, with the Fourier energy spectrum $E(k_perp)propto k_perp^{-5/2}$, where $k_perp$ is the wave number perpendicular to the local mean magnetic field. The same calculation is also performed for high (perpendicular) magnetic Prandtl number plasmas ($Pm$), where the reconnection scale is found to be $lambda/Lsim S_L^{-4/7}Pm^{-2/7}$.
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