Related papers: Electron Inertia and Magnetic Reconnection
Mathematics demonstrates that an ideally evolving magnetic field has an exponentially increasing sensitivity to non-ideal effects for all but truly exceptional evolutions. On a time scale that depends only logarithmically on the magnitude…
Regardless of how small non-ideal effects may be, phenomena associated with changes in magnetic field line connections are frequently observed to occur on an Alfv\'enic time scale. Since it is mathematically impossible for magnetic field…
We present a study of collisionless magnetic reconnection within the framework of full two-fluid MHD for a completely ionized hydrogen plasma, retaining the effects of the Hall current, electron pressure and electron inertia. We performed…
Null and X-points are not themselves directly important to magnetic reconnection because distinguishable field lines do not approach them closely. Even in a collision-free plasma, magnetic field lines that approach each other on a scale…
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 reconnection is a leading mechanism for magnetic energy conversion and high-energy non-thermal particle production in a variety of high-energy astrophysical objects, including ones with relativistic ion-electron plasmas (e.g.,…
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 magnetic reconnection is defined by the topology of the magnetic field lines changing on a timescale that is approximately an order of magnitude longer than the topology-conserving ideal-evolution timescale. Fast reconnection is an…
We present 3D simulations of semirelativistic collisionless magnetic reconnection, where upstream ions are subrelativistic while electrons are ultrarelativistic. We employ the realistic proton-to-electron mass ratio and explore a range of…
In a recent paper titled "Coherent electromagnetic wavelets and their twisting null congruences," I defined the local inertia density (I), reactive energy density (R), and energy flow velocity (v) of an electromagnetic field. These are the…
The efficiency of energy conversion during magnetic reconnection is related to the reconnection rate. While the stable reconnection rate has been studied extensively, its growth between the time of reconnection onset and the peak…
In laboratory and natural plasmas of practical interest, the spatial scale $\Delta_d$ at which magnetic field lines lose distinguishability differs enormously from the scale $a$ of magnetic reconnection across the field lines. In the solar…
Electron-only reconnection (EREC) is a magnetic reconnection regime occurring within subion-scale current sheets (CSs), exhibiting only electron jets, without any ion outflows. EREC has been first observed in the Earth's magnetosheath,…
The evolution of non-potential perturbations to a current-free magnetic X-point configuration is studied, taking into account electron inertial effects as well as resistivity. Electron inertia is shown to have a negligible effect on the…
We perform 3D3V hybrid-Vlasov simulations of turbulence with quasi-isotropic, compressible injection near ion scales to mimic the Earth's magnetosheath plasma, and investigate the novel electron-only reconnection, recently observed by the…
The prominence of nulls in reconnection theory is due to the expected singular current density and the indeterminacy of field-lines at a magnetic null. Electron inertia changes the implications of both features. Magnetic field lines are…
We derive, and validate numerically, an analytical model for electron-only magnetic reconnection applicable to strongly magnetized plasmas. Our model predicts sub-ion-scale reconnection rates significantly higher than those pertaining to…
Non-thermal electron acceleration via magnetic reconnection is thought to play an important role in powering the variable X-ray emission from radiatively inefficient accretion flows around black holes. The trans-relativistic regime of…
The recently discovered electron-only reconnection has drawn great interests due to abnormal features like lack of ion outflows and high reconnection rates. Using particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate their physical mechanisms. The…
Inertial effects in nonlinear magnetic reconnection are studied within the context of 2D electron magnetohydrodynamics (EMHD) with resistive and viscous dissipation. Families of nonlinear solutions for relevant current sheet parameters are…