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Related papers: Plasmoid statistics in relativistic magnetic recon…

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Magnetic reconnection is invoked as an efficient particle accelerator in a variety of astrophysical sources of non-thermal high-energy radiation. With large-scale two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of relativistic reconnection…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-10-17 Maria Petropoulou , Lorenzo Sironi

Magnetic reconnection can power spectacular high-energy astrophysical phenomena by producing non-thermal energy distributions in highly magnetized regions around compact objects. By means of two-dimensional fully kinetic particle-in-cell…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-08-28 Sebastiaan Selvi , Oliver Porth , Bart Ripperda , Fabio Bacchini , Lorenzo Sironi , Rony Keppens

Explaining fast magnetic reconnection in electrically conducting plasmas has been a theoretical challenge in plasma physics since its first description by Eugene N. Parker. In the recent years the observed reconnection rate has been shown…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2024-06-14 José María García Morillo , Alexandros Alexakis

We investigate the development of tearing-mode instability using the highest-resolution two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of reconnecting current sheets performed on a uniform grid, for Lundquist numbers of $10^3 \le S \le 5…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2026-05-05 G. H. Vicentin , G. Kowal , E. M. de Gouveia Dal Pino , A. Lazarian

Using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we characterize the energy spectra of particles accelerated by relativistic magnetic reconnection (without guide field) in collisionless electron-positron plasmas, for a wide range of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2016-01-18 G. R. Werner , D. A. Uzdensky , B. Cerutti , K. Nalewajko , M. C. Begelman

Magnetic reconnection, especially in the relativistic regime, provides an efficient mechanism for accelerating relativistic particles and thus offers an attractive physical explanation for nonthermal high-energy emission from various…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-07-15 Dmitri A. Uzdensky

Plasmoid growth is considered to enhance the rate of magnetic reconnection and is frequently used to explain fast mag netic reconnection in highly conductive (collisionless) plasmas. In strongly magnetized plasmas, the long wavelength…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2026-03-09 F. F. Locker , M. Rinner , M. Held , A. Kendl

The kinetic features of plasmoid chain formation and evolution are investigated by two dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations. Magnetic reconnection is initiated in multiple X points by the tearing instability. Plasmoids form and grow in…

The dynamics of a plasmoid chain is studied with three dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations. The evolution of the system with and without a uniform guide field, whose strength is 1/3 the asymptotic magnetic field, is investigated. The…

We present the results of 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of relativistic magnetic reconnection (RMR) in electron-positron plasma, including the dynamical influence of the synchrotron radiation process, and integrating the observable…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2020-07-15 José Ortuño-Macías , Krzysztof Nalewajko

Fast magnetic reconnection plays a fundamental role in driving explosive dynamics and heating in the solar chromosphere. The reconnection time scale of traditional models is shortened at the onset of the coalescence instability, which forms…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2021-03-26 Giulia Murtas , Andrew Hillier , Ben Snow

While relativistic magnetic reconnection in pair plasmas has emerged in recent years as a candidate for the origin of radiation from extreme astrophysical environments, the corresponding subrelativistic pair plasma regime has remained less…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2025-12-16 Adam Robbins , Anatoly Spitkovsky

Astrophysical observations suggest that magnetic reconnection in relativistic plasmas plays an important role in the acceleration of energetic particles. Modeling this accurately requires numerical schemes capable of addressing large scales…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2025-09-16 K. M. Schoeffler , F. Bacchini , K. Kormann , B. Eichmann , M. E. Innocenti

The plasmoid instability has revolutionized our understanding of magnetic reconnection in astrophysical environments. By preventing the formation of highly elongated reconnection layers, it is crucial in enabling the rapid energy conversion…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2017-11-30 Luca Comisso , Manasvi Lingam , Yi-Min Huang , Amitava Bhattacharjee

Simulations of relativistic plasmas traditionally focus on the dynamics of two-species mixtures of charged particles under the influence of external magnetic fields and those generated by particle currents. However, the extreme conditions…

A detailed numerical study of magnetic reconnection in resistive MHD for very large, previously inaccessible, Lundquist numbers ($10^4\le S\le 10^8$) is reported. Large-aspect-ratio Sweet-Parker current sheets are shown to be unstable to…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-13 R. Samtaney , N. F. Loureiro , D. A. Uzdensky , A. A. Schekochihin , S. C. Cowley

Magnetic reconnection in partially ionized plasmas is a ubiquitous phenomenon spanning the range from laboratory to intergalactic scales, yet it remains poorly understood and relatively little studied. Here, we present results from a…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2014-03-04 James E Leake , Vyacheslav S Lukin , Mark G Linton

Reconnection and turbulence are two of the most commonly observed dynamical processes in plasmas, but their relationship is still not fully understood. Using 2.5D kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of both strong turbulence and…

Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence and magnetic reconnection are ubiquitous in astrophysical environments. In most situations, these processes do not occur in isolation, but interact with each other. This renders a comprehensive theory of these…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2018-03-29 L. Comisso , Y. -M. Huang , M. Lingam , E. Hirvijoki , A. Bhattacharjee

Magnetized turbulence and magnetic reconnection are often invoked to explain the nonthermal emission observed from a wide variety of astrophysical sources. By means of fully-kinetic 2D and 3D PIC simulations, we investigate the interplay…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-12-04 Luca Comisso , Lorenzo Sironi