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Author(s):
W. Pei, R. Horiuchi and T. Sato
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Title:
Long Time Scale Evolution of Collisionless Driven Reconnection in a Two-Dimensional Open System
Date of publication:
Apr. 2001
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Key words:
collisionless driven reconnection, two-dimensional open system, particle simulation, steady reconnection, intermittent reconnection phenomenon
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Abstract:
Long time scale evolution of collisionless driven reconnection in an open system is investigated by means of two-dimensional full particle simulation based on an open boundary model. Collisionless reconnection is externally driven by the plasma inflow, which is mainly controlled by two key parameters of an external driving electric field, i.e., the strength E_0 and the early non-uniformity scale x_d. The strength E_0 controls reconnection rate, while the scale x_d controls the current layer shape and thus the magnetic field configuration. It is found that the dynamical behavior of collisionless reconnection is sensitive to x_d and less to E_0 in our simulation parameter range. In the small x_d case, the system evolves toward a steady state in which the reconnection rate is balanced with the external driving field E_0. As x_d increases, the reconnection evolution exhibits an intermittent phenomenon because of the frequent excitation of magnetic islands near the original X point.
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