Regimes of the Electron Diffusion Region in Magnetic Reconnection
Name
Le-2013-Regimes of the electron diffusion region in magnetic reconnection.pdf
Size
622.41 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2110677f8c6cfa5e2ca81f48ddb128c8
Author(s)
Le, Ari Yitzchak
Egedal-Pedersen, Jan
Ohia, Obioma O.
Daughton, W.
Karimabadi, H.
Lukin, V. S.
Date Issued
March 2013
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Le, A., J. Egedal, O. Ohia, W. Daughton, H. Karimabadi, and V. S. Lukin. Regimes of the Electron Diffusion Region in Magnetic Reconnection. Physical Review Letters 110, no. 13 (March 2013). © 2013 American Physical Society.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The electron diffusion region during magnetic reconnection lies in different regimes depending on the pressure anisotropy, which is regulated by the properties of thermal electron orbits. In kinetic simulations at the weakest guide fields, pitch angle mixing in velocity space causes the outflow electron pressure to become nearly isotropic. Above a threshold guide field that depends on a range of parameters, including the normalized electron pressure and the ion-to-electron mass ratio, electron pressure anisotropy develops in the exhaust and supports extended current layers. This new regime with electron current sheets extending to the system size is also reproduced by fluid simulations with an anisotropic closure for the electron pressure. It offers an explanation for recent spacecraft observations.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plasma Science and Fusion Center
Terms of Use
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.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.135004
