Demonstration of Anisotropic Fluid Closure Capturing the Kinetic Structure of Magnetic Reconnection

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.