Related papers: Particle acceleration in the driven relativistic r…
Recent experiments have demonstrated magnetic reconnection between colliding plasma plumes, where the reconnecting magnetic fields were self-generated in the plasma by the Biermann battery effect. Using fully kinetic 3-D simulations, we…
High energy radiation from nonthermal particles accelerated in relativistic magnetic reconnection is thought to be important in many astrophysical systems, ranging from blazar jets and black hole accretion disk coronae to pulsars and…
The basic physics and recent progresses in theoretical and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation studies of particle acceleration in multi-island magnetic reconnection are briefly reviewed. Particle acceleration in multi-island magnetic…
The theoretical prediction that magnetic reconnection spontaneously drives turbulence has been supported by magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and kinetic simulations. While reconnection with externally driven turbulence is accepted as an effective…
It is commonly believed that blazar jets are relativistic magnetized plasma outflows from supermassive black holes. One key question is how the jets dissipate magnetic energy to accelerate particles and drive powerful multi-wavelength…
Microscopically, collisionless reconnection in thin current sheets is argued to involve `composite electrons' in the ion inertial (Hall current) domain, a tiny fraction of electrons only. These `composite electrons' are confined to lower…
Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous and fundamental process in plasmas by which magnetic fields change their topology and release magnetic energy. Despite decades of research, the physics governing the reconnection process in many…
We have calculated self-consistent equilibria of a collisionless relativistic electron-positron gas in the vicinity of a magnetic $X-$point. For the considered conditions, pertinent to extra-galactic jets, we find that leptons are…
We develop a model of particle acceleration in explosive reconnection events in relativistic magnetically-dominated plasmas and apply it to explain gamma-ray flares from the Crab Nebula. The model relies on development of current-driven…
In this article, we study the physics of charged particle energization inside a strongly turbulent plasma, where current sheets naturally appear in evolving large-scale magnetic topologies, but they are split into two populations of…
We investigate magnetic reconnection in systems simultaneously containing asymmetric (anti-parallel) magnetic fields, asymmetric plasma densities and temperatures, and arbitrary in-plane bulk flow of plasma in the upstream regions. Such…
During periods of strong magnetic activity, cold dense plasma from the plasmasphere typically forms a plume extending towards the dayside magnetopause, eventually reaching it. In this work, we present a large-scale two-dimensional fully…
Astrophysical plasmas can have parameters vastly different from the more studied laboratory and space plasmas. In particular, the magnetic fields can be the dominant component of the plasma, with energy-density exceeding the particle…
The two-fluid effects on the radial outflow of relativistic electron-positron plasma are considered. It is shown that for large enough Michel magnetization parameter (1969) and multiplication parameter, the one-fluid MHD approximation…
Reconnection shocks in a magnetically dominated plasma must be compressive. Non-thermal ion acceleration can occur across built-in slow shocks, and across outflow fast shocks when the outflow is supermagnetosonic and the field is line-tied.…
Magnetic reconnection has long been known to be the most important mechanism not only for mixing the plasmas by changing the magnetic field topology but also for releasing the magnetic field energy into the plasma kinetic energy. During…
Using our new 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code parallelized with MPI, we investigated long-term particle acceleration associated with a relativistic electron-positron jet propagating in an unmagnetized ambient…
A general description for relativistic magnetic reconnection is given in terms of asymmetric inflow plasma conditions, such as plasma density, velocity magnetic field strength, and their respective thermal-inertial effects. In this work, we…
The meeting of astrophysical plasmas and their magnetic fields creates many reconnection sites. We experimentally compare the reconnection rate of laser-driven magnetic reconnection when it takes place at a single site and multiple sites.…
Plasmoid-driven magnetic reconnection in elongated current sheets is suspected to be an ubiquitous phenomenon in space and astrophysical plasmas, but the mechanisms driving its onset and dynamics are still debated. Deciphering the physical…