On the electron diffusion region in asymmetric reconnection with a guide magnetic field

Geophysical Research Letters - Tập 43 Số 6 - Trang 2359-2364 - 2016
M. Hesse1, Yi‐Hsin Liu1, Li‐Jen Chen1, Naoki Bessho1, M. M. Kuznetsova1, J. Birn2,3, J. L. Burch4
1Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
2Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico USA
3Space Science Institute Boulder, Colorado, USA.
4Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA

Tóm tắt

AbstractParticle‐in‐cell simulations in a 2.5‐D geometry and analytical theory are employed to study the electron diffusion region in asymmetric reconnection with a guide magnetic field. The analysis presented here demonstrates that similar to the case without guide field, in‐plane flow stagnation and null of the in‐plane magnetic field are well separated. In addition, it is shown that the electric field at the local magnetic X point is again dominated by inertial effects, whereas it remains dominated by nongyrotropic pressure effects at the in‐plane flow stagnation point. A comparison between local electron Larmor radii and the magnetic gradient scale lengths predicts that distribution should become nongyrotropic in a region enveloping both field reversal and flow stagnation points. This prediction is verified by an analysis of modeled electron distributions, which show clear evidence of mixing in the critical region.

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Tài liệu tham khảo

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Geophysical Research Letters

Tập 43 Số 6

2359-2364

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