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Author(s):
M. Tanaka
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Title:
Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection Associated with Coalescence of Flux Bundles
Date of publication:
Nov. 1994
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Key words:
magnetic reconnection, collisionless dissipation, electron inertia, implicit particle simulation
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Abstract:
The basic process of collisionless reconnection is studied in terms of coalescence of magnetized flux bundles using an implicit particle simulation of two-dimensions. The toroidal electric field that directly relates to magnetic reconnection is generated solenoidally in a region much broader than the current sheet whose width is a few electron skin depths. The reconnected flux increases linearly in time, but it is insensitive to finite Larmor radii of the ions in this Sweet-Parker regime. The toroidal electric field is controlled by a balance of transit acceleration of finite-mass electrons and their removal by sub-Alfvenic E x B drift outflow. The simulation results supports the collisionless Ohm's low Et cong eta_eqJ_t with eta_eq the inertia resistivity.
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