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Related papers: Plasmoid statistics in relativistic magnetic recon…

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Using a 2-1/2-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) code to simulate the relativistic expansion of a magnetized collisionless plasma into a vacuum, we report a new mechanism in which the magnetic energy is efficiently converted into the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-11-26 Edison Liang , Kazumi Nishimura , Hui Li , S. Peter Gary

Magnetic reconnection is an explosive process that accelerates particles to high energies in Earth's magnetosphere, offering a unique natural laboratory to study this phenomenon. This study investigates how well data-driven fully kinetic…

Space Physics · Physics 2026-02-18 Nadja Reisinger , Fabio Bacchini

Particle in cell (PIC) simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection are presented that demonstrate that the electron dissipation region develops a distinct two-scale structure along the outflow direction. The length of the electron…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2009-11-13 M. A. Shay , J. F. Drake , M. Swisdak

Properties of plasmoid-dominated turbulent reconnection in a low-$\beta$ background plasma are investigated by resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations. In the $\beta_{\rm in} < 1$ regime, where $\beta_{\rm in}$ is plasma $\beta$ in…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2020-05-04 Seiji Zenitani , Takahiro Miyoshi

For realistic values of Lundquist number in tokamak plasmas, the 1/1 magnetic island leads to the formation of secondary thin current sheet, which breaks up into a chain of small magnetic islands, called plasmoids. The role of plasmoid…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2019-06-26 A. Ali , P. Zhu

The Sweet-Parker layer in a system that exceeds a critical value of the Lundquist number ($S$) is unstable to the plasmoid instability. In this paper, a numerical scaling study has been done with an island coalescing system driven by a low…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2015-03-13 Yi-Min Huang , A. Bhattacharjee

We investigate the onset of driven collisionless reconnection and plasmoid formation in a magnetically dominated pair plasma, using 2D Particle-in-Cell simulations. Two force-free flux tubes of radius $R$ are initially pushed together with…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2025-12-16 Camille Granier , Daniel Groselj , Luca Comisso , Fabio Bacchini

Multiwavelength observations of the propagating disturbances (PDs), discovered by Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), are analyzed to determine its driving mechanism and physical nature. Two magnetic…

The processes controlling the complex clump structure, phase distribution, and magnetic field geometry that develops across a broad range of scales in the turbulent interstellar medium remains unclear. Using unprecedentedly high resolution…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-05-01 Drummond B. Fielding , Bart Ripperda , Alexander A. Philippov

This review discusses the physics of magnetic reconnection, a process in which the magnetic field topology changes and magnetic energy is converted to kinetic energy, in pair plasmas in the relativistic regime. We focus on recent progress…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-23 Daniel Kagan , Lorenzo Sironi , Benoit Cerutti , Dimitrios Giannios

We study magnetic reconnection events in a turbulent plasma within the two-fluid theory. By identifying the diffusive regions, we measure the reconnection rates as function of the conductivity and current sheet thickness. We have found that…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2017-03-06 Nicola Offeddu , Miller Mendoza

Magnetic flux ropes are commonly observed throughout the heliosphere, and recent studies suggest that interacting flux ropes are associated with some energetic particle events. In this work, we carry out 2D particle-in-cell (PIC)…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2018-10-31 Senbei Du , Fan Guo , Gary P. Zank , Xiaocan Li , Adam Stanier

Collisionless magnetic reconnection is a prime candidate to account for flare-like or steady emission, outflow launching, or plasma heating, in a variety of high-energy astrophysical objects, including ones with relativistic ion-electron…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2014-11-05 Mickaël Melzani , Rolf Walder , Doris Folini , Christophe Winisdoerffer , Jean M. Favre

In strongly magnetized astrophysical plasma systems, magnetic reconnection is believed to be a primary process during which explosive energy release and particle acceleration occur, leading to significant high-energy emission. Past years…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-10-04 Fan Guo , Xiaocan Li , William Daughton , Hui Li , Patrick Kilian , Yi-Hsin Liu , Qile Zhang , Haocheng Zhang

The past decade has seen an outstanding development of nonthermal particle acceleration in magnetic reconnection in magnetically-dominated systems, with clear signatures of power-law energy distributions as a common outcome of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-09-11 Xiaocan Li , Fan Guo , Yi-Hsin Liu , Hui Li

Magnetic reconnection is commonly considered as a mechanism of solar (eruptive) flares. A deeper study of this scenario reveals, however, a number of open issues. Among them is the fundamental question, how the magnetic energy is…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2015-03-17 Miroslav Bárta , Jörg Büchner , Marian Karlický , Jan Skála

Toroidal magnetic field is a key ingredient of relativistic jets launched by certain accreting astrophysical black holes, and of plasmoids emerging from the tearing instability during magnetic reconnection, a candidate dissipation mechanism…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-04-02 Krzysztof Nalewajko

Magnetic reconnection in strongly magnetized astrophysical plasma environments is believed to be the primary process for fast energy release and particle energization. Currently there is strong interest in relativistic magnetic…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2020-08-26 Fan Guo , Yi-Hsin Liu , Xiaocan Li , Hui Li , William Daughton , Patrick Kilian

The factors that control the maximum energy attained by protons and electrons during magnetic reconnection are investigated analytically and using large-scale simulations with the \textit{kglobal} model. Previous work revealed that a strong…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2026-02-09 Zhiyu Yin , Harry Arnold , James F Drake , Marc Swisdak

The plasmoid-induced-reconnection model explaining solar flares based on bursty reconnection produced by an ejecting plasmoid suggests a possible relation between the ejection velocity of a plasmoid and the rate of magnetic reconnection. In…