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Related papers: Plasmoid statistics in relativistic magnetic recon…

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We conduct a multiparametric study of driven magnetic reconnection relevant to recent experiments on colliding magnetized laser produced plasmas using particle-in-cell simulations. Varying the background plasma density, plasma resistivity,…

We describe magnetic reconnection experiments using a new, pulsed-power driven experimental platform in which the inflows are super-sonic but sub-Alfv\'enic.The intrinsically magnetised plasma flows are long lasting, producing a…

Plasmoid theory uses two-coordinate models to explain fast magnetic reconnection, which occurs on an Alfv\'enic, not a resistive time scale, in plasmas that are evolving in the near-ideal limit. The primary application has been to…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2019-04-26 Allen H. Boozer

We study the compression driven magnetic reconnection in the relativistic electron-positron plasma. Making use of a 2.5D particle-in-cell code, we simulated compression of a magnetized plasma layer containing a current sheet within it. We…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Yuri Lyubarsky , Michael Liverts

The interplay between kinetic and macroscopic scales during magnetic reconnection is investigated using particle-in-cell simulations of magnetic island coalescence in the strongly-magnetized, relativistic pair plasma regime. For large…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2025-11-21 Alexander Velberg , Adam Stanier , Xiaocan Li , Fan Guo , William Daughton , Nuno F. Loureiro

The magnetosphere of a rotating pulsar naturally develops a current sheet beyond the light cylinder (LC). Magnetic reconnection in this current sheet inevitably dissipates a nontrivial fraction of the pulsar spin-down power within a few LC…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-11 Dmitri A. Uzdensky , Anatoly Spitkovsky

Using fully kinetic simulations, we demonstrate that magnetic reconnection in relativistic plasmas is highly efficient at accelerating particles through a first-order Fermi process resulting from the curvature drift of particles in the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2014-10-16 Fan Guo , Hui Li , William Daughton , Yi-Hsin Liu

We numerically study magnetic reconnection on different spatial scales and at different heights in the weakly ionized plasma of the low solar atmosphere (around $300-800$~km above the solar surface) within a reactive 2.5 D multi-fluid…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2018-12-12 Lei Ni , Vyacheslav S. Lukin

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…

Fast $\gamma$-ray variability in blazars remains a central puzzle in high-energy astrophysics, challenging standard shock acceleration models. Blazars, a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGN) with jets pointed close to our line of sight,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-11-26 Chandan Kumar Das , Bhargav Vaidya , Amit Shukla , Giancarlo Mattia , Karl Mannheim

Relativistic magnetic reconnection events can widely exist in magnetized plasmas in astrophysical systems. During this process, oppositely directed magnetic field lines reconnect and release magnetic energy, efficiently accelerating…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-08-08 Haocheng Zhang , Xiaocan Li , Fan Guo , Dimitrios Giannios

A fundamental problem of forced magnetic reconnection has been solved taking into account the plasmoid instability of thin reconnecting current sheets. In this problem, the reconnection is driven by a small amplitude boundary perturbation…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2015-04-22 Luca Comisso , Daniela Grasso , François L. Waelbroeck

Magnetic reconnection in partially ionized plasmas plays a crucial role in a wide range of solar, astrophysical, and laboratory environments. While reconnection in such plasmas is commonly characterized by the ion-neutral coupling strength…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2026-03-02 Liang Wang , Chuanfei Dong , Yi-Min Huang , Yue Yuan , Xinmin Li , Yang Zhang

(abridged) Magnetic reconnection is the topological reconfiguration of the magnetic field in a plasma, accompanied by the violent release of energy and particle acceleration. Reconnection is as ubiquitous as plasmas themselves, with solar…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2015-07-29 N. F. Loureiro , D. A. Uzdensky

Theoretical studies of the plasmoid instability generally assume that the reconnecting magnetic fields are symmetric. We relax this assumption by performing two-dimensional resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the plasmoid…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2013-06-21 Nicholas A. Murphy , Aleida K. Young , Chengcai Shen , Jun Lin , Lei Ni

Plasmoid-mediated reconnection plays a fundamental role in different solar atmospheric phenomena. Numerical reproduction of this process is therefore essential for developing robust solar models. Our goal is to assess plasmoid-mediated…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2024-03-13 Øystein Håvard Færder , Daniel Nóbrega-Siverio , Mats Carlsson

Plasmoid instability is usually accounted for the onset of fast reconnection events observed in astrophysical plasmas. However, the measured reconnection rate from observations can be one order of magnitude higher than that derived from MHD…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2024-07-03 Abdullah Zafar , Lei Ni , Jun Lin , Ahmad Ali

Our understanding of magnetic reconnection in resistive magnetohydrodynamics has gone through a fundamental change in recent years. The conventional wisdom is that magnetic reconnection mediated by resistivity is slow in laminar high…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2013-05-21 Yi-Min Huang , A. Bhattacharjee

In solar flares and other astrophysical systems, a major challenge for solving particle acceleration problem associated with magnetic reconnection is the enormous scale separation between kinetic scales and observed reconnection scale.…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2018-10-08 Xiaocan Li , Fan Guo , Hui Li , Shengtai Li

Models invoking magnetic reconnection as the particle acceleration mechanism within relativistic jets often adopt a gradual energy dissipation profile within the jet. However, such a profile has yet to be reproduced in first-principles…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-12-13 Emma Kaufman , I. M. Christie , A. Lalakos , A. Tchekhovskoy , D. Giannios