Energy Conversion by Magnetic Reconnection in Multiple Ion Temperature Plasmas

Magnetic reconnection is a process that converts magnetic energy into kinetic energy, both bulk and thermal. We study the energy partition in magnetotail reconnection in the presence of cold ion populations of ionospheric origin using kinetic simulations. We compare two simulations with one or two ion populations, but same ion moments. The ion distribution in the simulation with cold ions therefore corresponds to a non‐Maxwellian distribution with a large tail. The global energy budget does not change in the two cases, but when focusing on sub‐populations, the hot ion population (i.e., the tail of the velocity distribution function) gains more energy than the cold ion population (i.e., the core of the distribution). Hot and cold ions also gain different percentages of bulk and thermal energy.

[1]  W. Ding,et al.  Energy Budgets From Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection Site to Reconnection Front , 2021, Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.

[2]  C. Norgren,et al.  The Micro‐Macro Coupling of Mass‐Loading in Symmetric Magnetic Reconnection With Cold Ions , 2021, Geophysical Research Letters.

[3]  M. Innocenti,et al.  On the Role of Solar Wind Expansion as a Source of Whistler Waves: Scattering of Suprathermal Electrons and Heat Flux Regulation in the Inner Heliosphere , 2021, The Astrophysical Journal.

[4]  S. Markidis,et al.  Cold ion energization at separatrices during magnetic reconnection , 2021 .

[5]  L. Kistler,et al.  Impacts of Ionospheric Ions on Magnetic Reconnection and Earth's Magnetosphere Dynamics , 2021, Reviews of Geophysics.

[6]  B. Lavraud,et al.  Simulation of Plasmaspheric Plume Impact on Dayside Magnetic Reconnection , 2020, Geophysical Research Letters.

[7]  C. Norgren,et al.  The Impact of Oxygen on the Reconnection Rate , 2019, Geophysical Research Letters.

[8]  Diego Gonzalez-Herrero,et al.  ECsim-CYL: Energy Conserving Semi-Implicit particle in cell simulation in axially symmetric cylindrical coordinates , 2018, Comput. Phys. Commun..

[9]  P. Cassak,et al.  Kinetic simulation of asymmetric magnetic reconnection with cold ions , 2017 .

[10]  G. Lapenta,et al.  Multiple-scale kinetic simulations with the energy conserving semi-implicit particle in cell method , 2016, 1612.08289.

[11]  S. Markidis,et al.  Three‐scale structure of diffusion region in the presence of cold ions , 2016 .

[12]  M. Hesse,et al.  Full particle-in-cell simulations of kinetic equilibria and the role of the initial current sheet on steady asymmetric magnetic reconnection , 2016, Journal of Plasma Physics.

[13]  P. Cassak,et al.  Magnetospheric ion influence on magnetic reconnection at the duskside magnetopause , 2016 .

[14]  Stefano Markidis,et al.  Introduction of temporal sub-stepping in the Multi-Level Multi-Domain semi-implicit Particle-In-Cell code Parsek2D-MLMD , 2015, Comput. Phys. Commun..

[15]  H. Ji,et al.  Conversion of magnetic energy in the magnetic reconnection layer of a laboratory plasma , 2014, Nature Communications.

[16]  M. Shay,et al.  Energy partition in magnetic reconnection in Earth's magnetotail. , 2013, Physical review letters.

[17]  M. André,et al.  Low‐energy ions: A previously hidden solar system particle population , 2012 .

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

[19]  J. Birn,et al.  Energy release and transfer in guide field reconnection , 2010 .

[20]  I. J. Rae,et al.  Tail Reconnection Triggering Substorm Onset , 2008, Science.

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

[22]  J. Birn,et al.  Energy release and conversion by reconnection in the magnetotail , 2005 .

[23]  James F. Drake,et al.  Alfvénic collisionless magnetic reconnection and the Hall term , 2001 .

[24]  M. Shimojo,et al.  Hot-Plasma Ejections Associated with Compact-Loop Solar Flares , 1995 .

[25]  J. Birn,et al.  Three‐dimensional magnetic reconnection and the magnetic topology of coronal mass ejection events , 1995 .

[26]  H. Rosenbauer,et al.  Characteristics of electron velocity distribution functions in the solar wind derived from the helios plasma experiment , 1987 .

[27]  M. Shay,et al.  Reduction of Ion Heating During Magnetic Reconnection by Large-Scale Effective Potentials , 2015 .