Exact Vlasov-Maxwell equilibria for asymmetric current sheets
Abstract
The NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale mission has made in situ diffusion region and kinetic-scale resolution measurements of asymmetric magnetic reconnection for the first time, in the Earth's magnetopause. The principal theoretical tool currently used to model collisionless asymmetric reconnection is particle-in-cell simulations. Many particle-in-cell simulations of asymmetric collisionless reconnection start from an asymmetric Harris-type magnetic field but with distribution functions that are not exact equilibrium solutions of the Vlasov equation. We present new and exact equilibrium solutions of the Vlasov-Maxwell system that are self-consistent with one-dimensional asymmetric current sheets, with an asymmetric Harris-type magnetic field profile, plus a constant nonzero guide field. The distribution functions can be represented as a combination of four shifted Maxwellian distribution functions. This equilibrium describes a magnetic field configuration with more freedom than the previously known exact solution and has different bulk flow properties.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1709.02659,
title = {Exact Vlasov-Maxwell equilibria for asymmetric current sheets},
author = {O. Allanson and F. Wilson and T. Neukirch and Y. -H. Liu and J. D. B. Hodgson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1709.02659},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
Final Author version. The Open Access Geophysical Review Letters article is at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL074168/full