Related papers: Kinetic equilibrium of two-dimensional force-free …
Fully kinetic simulations are applied to the study of 2D anti-parallel reconnection, elucidating the dynamics by which the electron fluid maintains force balance within both the electron diffusion region (EDR) and the ion diffusion region…
The performed magnetohydrodynamic simulation examines the importance of magnetofluid evolution which naturally leads to current sheets in the presence of three-dimensional (3D) magnetic nulls. Initial magnetic field is constructed by…
We present the first study of the formation and dissipation of current sheets at electron scales in a wave-driven, weakly collisional, 3D kinetic turbulence simulation. We investigate the relative importance of dissipation associated with…
So far, only one distribution function giving rise to a collisionless nonlinear force-free current sheet equilibrium allowing for a plasma beta less than one is known (Allanson et al., 2015; 2016). This distribution function can only be…
Results are presented of a first study of collisionless magnetic reconnection starting from a recently found exact nonlinear force-free Vlasov-Maxwell equilibrium. The initial state has a Harris sheet magnetic field profile in one direction…
The possibility of the existence of quasi-stationary electromagnetic fields in plasma supported by their own self-consistent current follows from Maxwell's equations with field sources. These equations also give rise to a wave equation for…
We present the results of particle-in-cell numerical pair plasma simulations of relativistic 2D magnetostatic equilibria known as the 'ABC' fields. In particular, we focus on the lowest-order unstable configuration consisting of two minima…
Collisionless dissipation of macroscopic energy into heat is an unsolved problem of space and astrophysical plasmas, e.g., solar wind and Earth's magnetosheath. The most viable process under consideration is the turbulent-cascade of…
We use the results of a three-dimensional kinetic simulation of an Harris current sheet to propose an explanation and to reproduce the ISEE-1/2, Geotail, and Cluster observations of the magnetotail current sheet structure. Current sheet…
Many magnetic structures in the solar atmosphere evolve rather slowly so that they can be assumed as (quasi-)static or (quasi-)stationary and represented via magneto-hydrostatic (MHS) or stationary magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) equilibria,…
Many powerful and variable gamma-ray sources, including pulsar wind nebulae, active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts, seem capable of accelerating particles to gamma-ray emitting energies efficiently over very short time scales. These…
Turbulence in classical fluids is characterized by persistent structures that emerge from the chaotic landscape. We investigate the analogous process in fully kinetic plasma turbulence by using high-resolution, direct numerical simulations…
Non-collisional current sheets that form during the nonlinear development of magnetic reconnection are characterized by a small thickness, of the order of the electron skin depth. They can become unstable to the formation of plasmoids,…
A representation of the static MHD equilibrium system in coordinates connected with magnetic surfaces is suggested. It is used for producing families of non-trivial 3D exact solutions of isotropic and anisotropic plasma equilibria in…
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…
The magnetohydrodynamic current-vortex sheet is a free boundary problem involving a moving free surface separating two plasma regions. We prove the global nonlinear stability of current-vortex sheet in the two dimensional ideal…
The flat Harris current sheet model has become a powerful initial equilibrium in theory and simulation of magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail, at the magnetopause and also in multiple current sheet models of the heliosheath and…
Magnetic reconnection, a plasma process converting magnetic energy to particle kinetic energy, is often invoked to explain magnetic energy releases powering high-energy flares in astrophysical sources including pulsar wind nebulae and black…
The plasmoid instability in evolving current sheets has been widely studied due to its effects on the disruption of current sheets, the formation of plasmoids, and the resultant fast magnetic reconnection. In this Letter, we study the role…
We propose a continuum model to describe the molecular alignment in thin nematic shells. By contrast with previous accounts, the two-dimensional free energy, aimed at describing the physics of thin films of nematics deposited on curved…