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Regimes of the Electron Diffusion Region in Magnetic Reconnection

Egedal, J.; Daughton, W.; Karimabadi, H. +3 more

The electron diffusion region during magnetic reconnection lies in different regimes depending on the pressure anisotropy, which is regulated by the properties of thermal electron orbits. In kinetic simulations at the weakest guide fields, pitch angle mixing in velocity space causes the outflow electron pressure to become nearly isotropic. Above a…

Bifurcated Structure of the Electron Diffusion Region in Three-Dimensional Magnetic Reconnection

Li, H.; Daughton, W.; Karimabadi, H. +2 more

Three-dimensional kinetic simulations of magnetic reconnection reveal that the electron diffusion region is composed of two or more current sheets in regimes with weak magnetic shear angles ϕ≲80°. This new morphology is explained by oblique tearing modes which produce flux ropes while simultaneously driving enhanced current at multiple resonance s…

Energy Partition in Magnetic Reconnection in Earth's Magnetotail

Eastwood, J. P.; Lavraud, B.; Phan, T. D. +4 more

The partition of energy flux in magnetic reconnection is examined experimentally using Cluster satellite observations of collisionless reconnection in Earth’s magnetotail. In this plasma regime, the dominant component of the energy flux is ion enthalpy flux, with smaller contributions from the electron enthalpy and heat flux and the ion kinetic en…

Stochastic Acceleration by Multi-Island Contraction during Turbulent Magnetic Reconnection

Kontar, Eduard P.; Bian, Nicolas H.

The acceleration of charged particles in magnetized plasmas is considered during turbulent multi-island magnetic reconnection. The particle acceleration model is constructed for an ensemble of islands which produce adiabatic compression of the particles. The model takes into account the statistical fluctuations in the compression rate experienced …