Related papers: Laboratory Study of Collisionless Magnetic Reconne…
The structure of the diffusion regions in antiparallel magnetic reconnection is investigated by means of a theory and a Vlasov simulation. The magnetic diffusion is considered as relaxation to the frozen-in state, which depends on a…
In space and astrophysical plasmas, like in planetary magnetospheres, as that of Mercury,energetic electrons are often found near current sheets (CSs), which hints at electron acceleration by magnetic reconnection. Unfortunately, electron…
The nonthermal particle acceleration during magnetic reconnection remains a fundamental topic in several astrophysical phenomena, such as solar flares, pulsar wind, magnetars, etc, for more than half a century, and one of the unresolved…
Reconnection of the self-generated magnetic fields in laser-plasma interaction was first investigated experimentally by Nilson {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 255001 (2006)] by shining two laser pulses a distance apart on a solid target…
We propose an analytic approach to the problem of collisionless magnetic reconnection formulated as a process of Alfven eigenmodes' generation and dissipation. Alfven eigenmodes are confined by the current sheet in the same way that quantum…
Hybrid-Vlasov-Maxwell simulations of magnetized plasma turbulence including non-linear electron-inertia effects in a generalized Ohm's law are presented. When fluctuation energy is injected on scales sufficiently close to ion-kinetic…
Fast-exploding plasmas traveling though magnetized, collisionless plasmas can occur in a variety of physical systems, such as supernova remnants, coronal mass ejections, and laser-driven laboratory experiments. To study these systems, it is…
Realistic models of magnetic reconnection in the solar chromosphere must take into account that the plasma is partially ionized and that plasma conditions within any two magnetic flux bundles undergoing reconnection may not be the same.…
First results are presented from kinetic numerical simulations of relativistic collisionless magnetic reconnection in pair plasma that include radiation reaction from both synchrotron and inverse Compton (IC) processes, motivated by…
Major scientific questions and research opportunities are described on 10 unprioritized plasma astrophysics topics: (1) magnetic reconnection, (2) collisionless shocks and particle acceleration, (3) waves and turbulence, (4) magnetic…
Magnetic reconnection drives a wide range of astrophysical phenomena, including geomagnetic storms, solar flares, and activity in blazars. However, direct measurement of key reconnection observables remains challenging due to the remote and…
Electron heating and mixing during asymmetric reconnection are studied with a 3D kinetic simulation that matches plasma parameters from Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft observations of a magnetopause diffusion region. The mixing…
We use Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission data to investigate electron-scale energy transfer due to lower hybrid drift waves during magnetopause reconnection. We analyze waves observed in an electron-scale plasma mixing layer at the…
Magnetic reconnection plays a crucial role in the energy release process for different kinds of solar eruptions and activities. The rapid solar eruption requires a fast reconnection model. Plasmoid instability in the reconnecting current…
Processes driven by unsteady reconnection can efficiently accelerate particles in many astrophysical plasmas. An example are the reconnection jet fronts in an outflow region. We present evidence of suprathermal ion acceleration between two…
Energy dissipation in collisionless plasmas is a longstanding fundamental physics problem. Although it is well known that magnetic reconnection and turbulence are coupled and transport energy from system-size scales to sub-proton scales,…
The description of the local turbulent energy transfer, and the high-resolution ion distributions measured by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, together provide a formidable tool to explore the cross-scale connection between the…
Collisionless shocks play a key role in the heliosphere at planetary bow shocks by governing the conversion of the upstream bulk kinetic energy of the solar wind flow to other forms of energy in the downstream, including bulk plasma heat,…
A higher-order multiscale analysis of the dissipation range of collisionless plasma turbulence is presented using in-situ high-frequency magnetic field measurements from the Cluster spacecraft in a stationary interval of fast ambient solar…
A minimal model for magnetic reconnection and, generally, low-frequency dynamics in low-beta plasmas is proposed. The model combines analytical and computational simplicity with physical realizability: it is a rigorous limit of gyrokinetics…