Demonstration of Anisotropic Fluid Closure Capturing the Kinetic Structure of Magnetic Reconnection
Name
Ohia-2012-Demonstration of Anisotropic Fluid Closure Capturing the Kinetic Structure of Magnetic Reconnection.pdf
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1.11 MB
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Author(s)
Ohia, Obioma O.
Egedal-Pedersen, Jan
Lukin, V. S.
Daughton, W.
Date Issued
September 2012
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Ohia, O. et al. “Demonstration of Anisotropic Fluid Closure Capturing the Kinetic Structure of Magnetic Reconnection.” Physical Review Letters 109.11 (2012).© 2012 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Collisionless magnetic reconnection in high-temperature plasmas has been widely studied through fluid-based models. Here, we present results of fluid simulation implementing new equations of state for guide-field reconnection. The new fluid closure accurately accounts for the anisotropic electron pressure that builds in the reconnection region due to electric and magnetic trapping of electrons. In contrast to previous fluid models, our fluid simulation reproduces the detailed reconnection region as observed in fully kinetic simulations. We hereby demonstrate that the new fluid closure self-consistently captures all the physics relevant to the structure of the reconnection region, providing a gateway to a renewed and deeper theoretical understanding of reconnection in weakly collisional regimes.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plasma Science and Fusion Center
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.115004
