Aspects of Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection in Asymmetric Systems

Asymmetric reconnection is being investigated by means of particle-in-cell simulations. The research has two foci: the direction of the reconnection line in configurations with nonvanishing magnetic fields; and the question why reconnection can be faster if a guide field is added to an otherwise unchanged asymmetric configuration. We find that reconnection prefers a direction, which maximizes the available magnetic energy, and show that this direction coincides with the bisection of the angle between the asymptotic magnetic fields. Regarding the difference in reconnection rates between planar and guide field models, we demonstrate that a guide field can provide essential confinement for particles in the reconnection region, which the weaker magnetic field in one of the inflow directions cannot necessarily provide.

[1]  N. Aunai,et al.  Energy budgets in collisionless magnetic reconnection: Ion heating and bulk acceleration , 2011 .

[2]  F. Mozer,et al.  Electron Physics of Asymmetric Magnetic Field Reconnection , 2011 .

[3]  P. Cassak,et al.  Three-dimensional simulations of the orientation and structure of reconnection X-lines , 2010, 1009.1650.

[4]  J. Birn,et al.  Scaling of asymmetric reconnection in compressible plasmas , 2010 .

[5]  A. Klimas,et al.  A simple, analytical model of collisionless magnetic reconnection in a pair plasma , 2009 .

[6]  D. Sibeck.  Concerning the occurrence pattern of flux transfer events on the dayside magnetopause , 2009 .

[7]  P. Pritchett.  Collisionless magnetic reconnection in an asymmetric current sheet , 2008 .

[8]  P. Cassak,et al.  Asymmetric Magnetic Reconnection: General Theory and Collisional Simulations , 2007 .

[9]  William Daughton,et al.  Multi‐scale structure of the electron diffusion region , 2007 .

[10]  J. Drake,et al.  Orientation of the reconnection X‐line , 2007, 0704.2758.

[11]  J. Huba.  Hall magnetic reconnection: Guide field dependence , 2005 .

[12]  Michael Hesse,et al.  Geospace Environmental Modeling (GEM) magnetic reconnection challenge , 2001 .

[13]  M. Hesse,et al.  The Diffusion Region in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection , 1999 .

[14]  S. Cowley.  Comments on the merging of nonantiparallel magnetic fields , 1976 .

[15]  F. Mozer,et al.  A quantitative model for the potential resulting from reconnection with an arbitrary interplanetary magnetic field , 1974 .

[16]  B. Sonnerup,et al.  Magnetopause reconnection rate , 1974 .