Related papers: Composition-asymmetric and sheared relativistic ma…
Asymmetric current sheets are likely to be prevalent in both astrophysical and laboratory plasmas with complex three dimensional (3D) magnetic topologies. This work presents kinematic analytical models for spine and fan reconnection at a…
Rapid and luminous flares of non-thermal radiation observed in blazars require an efficient mechanism of energy dissipation and particle acceleration in relativistic active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets. Particle acceleration in relativistic…
The relativistic plasma jets from a misaligned black hole-accretion disk system will not be axially symmetric. Here we analyze nonaxisymmetric, stationary, translation invariant jets in the force-free approximation where the field energy…
Magnetic reconnection converts magnetic energy into thermal and kinetic energy in plasma. Among numerous candidate mechanisms, ion acoustic instabilities driven by the relative drift between ions and electrons, or equivalently electric…
The density decreases exponentially with height in the solar gravitationally stratified atmosphere, therefore the collisional coupling between the ionized plasma and the neutrals also decreases. Here, we investigate the role of collisions…
Using fully kinetic simulations, we study the x-line orientation of magnetic reconnection in an asymmetric configuration. A spatially localized perturbation is employed to induce a single x-line, that has sufficient freedom to choose its…
Using fully kinetic simulations, we study the scaling of the inflow speed of collisionless magnetic reconnection from the non-relativistic to ultra-relativistic limit. In the anti-parallel configuration, the inflow speed increases with the…
The energetic electromagnetic eruptions observed during the prompt phase of gamma-ray bursts are attributed to synchrotron emissions. The internal shocks moving through the ultrarelativistic jet, which is ejected by an imploding…
The magnetic reconnection process is analyzed for relativistic magnetohydrodynamical plasmas around rotating black holes. A simple generalization of the Sweet-Parker model is used as a first approximation to the problem. The reconnection…
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…
We present a detailed study of magnetic reconnection in a quasi-two-dimensional pulsed-power driven laboratory experiment. Oppositely directed magnetic fields $(B=3$ T), advected by supersonic, sub-Alfv\'enic carbon plasma flows…
One of the main questions in magnetic reconnection is the origin of triggering behavior with on/off properties that accounts, once it is activated, for the fast magnetic energy conversion to kinetic and thermal energies at the heart of…
Using kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, we simulate reconnection conditions appropriate for the magnetosheath and solar wind, i.e., plasma beta (ratio of gas pressure to magnetic pressure) greater than 1 and low magnetic shear…
Magnetic fields surrounding black holes are responsible for various astrophysical phenomena related to accretion processes and relativistic jets. Depending on the source, the configuration of the field lines may differ significantly,…
Mildly relativistic shocks in magnetized electron-ion plasmas are investigated with 2D kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of unprecedentedly high resolution and large scale for conditions that may be found at internal shocks in blazar…
Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous fundamental process in space and astrophysical plasmas that rapidly converts magnetic energy into some combination of flow energy, thermal energy, and non-thermal energetic particles. Over the past…
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…
Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous plasma process in which oppositely directed magnetic field lines break and rejoin, resulting in a change of the magnetic field topology. Reconnection generates magnetic islands: regions enclosed by…
We apply the general relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics code {\tt BHAC} to perform a 2D study of the formation and evolution of a reconnection layer in between two merging magnetic flux tubes in Minkowski spacetime. Small-scale…
We study theoretically mode conversion and resonant overreflection of magnetohydrodynamic waves in an inhomogeneous plane-stratified plasma in the presence of a nonuniform shear flow, using precise numerical calculations of the reflection…