NIFS-284

FULL TEXT (PDF, 1186 KB)


Author(s):

R. Horiuchi and T. Sato

Title:

Particle Simulation Study of Driven Magnetic Reconnection in a Collisionless Plasma

Date of publication:

June 1994

Key words:

particle simulation, driven magnetic reconnection, finite Larmor radium effect, collisionless plasma, two-step evolution

Abstract:

Driven magnetic reconnection in a collisionless plasma, "collisionless driven reconnection", is investigated by means of a 5/2 dimensional particle simulation. Magnetic reconnection develops in two steps, i.e., slow reconnection which takes place in the early stage of the compression when the current layer is compressed as thin as the orbit amplitude of an ion meandering motion (ion current layer), and subsequent fast reconnection which takes place in the late stage when the electron current is concentrated into the narrow region with spatial scale comparable to the orbit amplitude of an electron meandering motion (electron current layer ). The global dynamic evolution of magnetic reconnection is controlled by the physics of the ion current layer. The maximum reconnection rate is roughly in proportion to the driving electric field. It is also found that both ion heating and electron heating take place in accordance with the formation of two current layers and the ion temperature becomes two of more times as high as the electron temperature.

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