Journal article
Fully kinetic simulations of undriven magnetic reconnection with open boundary conditions
Physics of plasmas, Vol.13(7), p.72101
07/2006
DOI: 10.1063/1.2218817
Abstract
Kinetic simulations of magnetic reconnection typically employ periodic boundary conditions that limit the duration in which the results are physically meaningful. To address this issue, a new model is proposed that is open with respect to particles, magnetic flux, and electromagnetic radiation. The model is used to examine undriven reconnection in a neutral sheet initialized with a single x-point. While at early times the results are in excellent agreement with previous periodic studies, the evolution over longer intervals is entirely different. In particular, the length of the electron diffusion region is observed to increase with time resulting in the formation of an extended electron current sheet. As a consequence, the electron diffusion region forms a bottleneck and the reconnection rate is substantially reduced. Periodically, the electron layer becomes unstable and produces a secondary island, breaking the diffusion region into two shorter segments. After growing for some period, the island is ejected and the diffusion region again expands until a new island is formed. Fast reconnection may still be possible provided that the generation of secondary islands remains sufficiently robust. These results indicate that reconnection in a neutral sheet may be inherently unsteady and raise serious questions regarding the standard model of Hall mediated reconnection.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Fully kinetic simulations of undriven magnetic reconnection with open boundary conditions
- Creators
- William Daughton - University of IowaJack Scudder - University of IowaHoma Karimabadi - University of California, San Diego
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Physics of plasmas, Vol.13(7), p.72101
- DOI
- 10.1063/1.2218817
- ISSN
- 1070-664X
- eISSN
- 1089-7674
- Number of pages
- 15
- Grant note
- NNG05GC28G / NASA NNG05GJ25G / NASA 0447423 / NSF NNG05GF46G / NASA
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 07/2006
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984199663202771
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