Related papers: Magnetic guide field generation in thin collisionl…
The magnetotail current sheet configuration determines magnetic reconnection properties that control the substorm onset, one of the most energetic phenomena in the Earth's magnetosphere. The quiet-time current sheet is often approximated as…
We study the long term evolution of magnetic fields generated by an initially unmagnetized collisionless relativistic $e^+e^-$ shock. Our 2D particle-in-cell numerical simulations show that downstream of such a Weibel-mediated shock,…
Although turbulence has been conjectured to be important for magnetic reconnection, still very little is known about its role in collisionless plasmas. Previous attempts to quantify the effect of turbulence on reconnection usually…
Cosmic magnetic fields may be generated during early cosmic phase transition, such as the QCD- or electroweak- transitions. The magnitude of the remainder of such fields at the present epoch crucially depends on the exponent $n$ of their…
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 field fluctuations in MHD turbulence can be viewed as current sheets that are progressively more anisotropic at smaller scales. As suggested by Loureiro & Boldyrev (2017) and Mallet et al (2017), below a certain critical thickness…
We study the long term evolution of magnetic fields generated by a collisionless relativistic $e^+e^-$ shock which is initially unmagnetized. Our 2D particle-in-cell numerical simulations show that downstream of such a Weibel-mediated…
In this work we report a numerical study of the cosmic magnetic field amplification due to collisionless plasma instabilities. The collisionless magnetohydrodynamic equations derived account for the pressure anisotropy that leads, in…
Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous process in plasma physics, driving rapid and energetic events such as coronal mass ejections. Reconnection between magnetic fields with arbitrary shear can be decomposed into an anti-parallel,…
We show that the Weibel-mediated collisionless shocks are driven at non-relativistic propagation speed (0.1c < V < 0.45c) in unmagnetized electron-ion plasmas by performing two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that the…
We study the generation of magnetic fields during the stage of particle production resulting from spinodal instabilities during phase transitions out of equilibrium. The main premise is that long-wavelength instabilities that drive the…
It is usually believed that the geo-dynamo of the Earth or more generally of other planets, is created by the convective fluid motions inside their molten cores. An alternative to this thermal or compositional convection can however be…
Solar flares may be the best-known examples of the explosive conversion of magnetic energy into bulk motion, plasma heating, and particle acceleration via magnetic reconnection. The energy source for all flares is the highly sheared…
It is generally accepted that magnetic fields generated in the nonlinear development of the transverse Weibel instability provide effective collisionality in unmagnetized collisionless shocks. Recently, extensive two and three dimensional…
We show that under very general conditions, cluster plasmas threaded by weak magnetic fields are subject to very fast growing plasma instabilities driven by the anisotropy of the plasma pressure (viscous stress) with respect to the local…
A new path for the generation of a sub-ion scale cascade in collisionless plasma turbulence, triggered by magnetic reconnection, is uncovered by means of high-resolution two-dimensional hybrid-kinetic simulations employing two complementary…
Magnetic reconnection can explosively release magnetic energy when opposing magnetic fields merge and annihilate through a current sheet, driving plasma jets and accelerating non-thermal particle populations to high energy, in plasmas…
The collision of magnetic reconnection jets is studied by means of a three dimensional numerical simulation at kinetic scale, in the presence of a strong guide field. We show that turbulence develops due to the jets collision producing…
The head-on collision between electrostatic shocks is studied via multi-dimensional Particle-In-Cell simulations. It is found that the shock velocities drop significantly and a strong magnetic field is generated after the interaction. This…
Magnetic reconnection in laboratory, space and astrophysical plasmas is often invoked to explain explosive energy release and particle acceleration. However, the timescales involved in classical models within the macroscopic MHD regime are…