Electron Heating by Debye-Scale Turbulence in Guide-Field Reconnection
Space Physics
2020-02-05 v2 Plasma Physics
Abstract
We report electrostatic Debye-scale turbulence developing within the diffusion region of asymmetric magnetopause reconnection with moderate guide field using observations by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. We show that Buneman waves and beam modes cause efficient and fast thermalization of the reconnection electron jet by irreversible phase mixing, during which the jet kinetic energy is transferred into thermal energy. Our results show that the reconnection diffusion region in the presence of a moderate guide field is highly turbulent, and that electrostatic turbulence plays an important role in electron heating.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1908.09724,
title = {Electron Heating by Debye-Scale Turbulence in Guide-Field Reconnection},
author = {Yu. V. Khotyaintsev and D. B. Graham and K. Steinvall and L. Alm and A. Vaivads and A. Johlander and C. Norgren and W. Li and A. Divin and H. S. Fu and K. -J. Hwang and N. Ahmadi and O. Le Contel and D. J. Gershman and C. T. Russell and R. B. Torbert and J. L. Burch},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.09724},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
5 pages, 4 figures