Electron dynamics in collisionless magnetic reconnection

Lu, Quanming; Wang, Rongsheng; Xie, Jinlin; Huang, Can; Lu, San; Wang, Shui

doi:10.1007/s11434-011-4440-0

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Electron energization at magnetid islands has been reported with the Cluster observations during reconnections in the Earth's magnetosphere [122][123][124]. This provides support to the above scenarios.…”

Section: Studies On Magnetic Islands Of Reconnections Along the Cme Csupporting

confidence: 65%

A review of recent studies on coronal dynamics: Streamers, coronal mass ejections, and their interactions

Chen

2013

Chin. Sci. Bull.

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In this article I present a review of recent studies on coronal dynamics, including research progresses on the physics of coronal streamers that are the largest structure in the corona, physics of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that may cause a global disturbance to the corona, as well as physics of CME-streamer interactions. The following topics will be discussed in depth: (1) acceleration of the slow wind flowing around the streamer considering the effect of magnetic flux tube curvature; (2) physical mechanism accounting for persistent releases of streamer blobs and diagnostic results on the temporal variability of the slow wind speed with such events; (3) force balance analysis and energy release mechanism of CMEs with a flux rope magnetohydrodynamic model; (4) statistical studies on magnetic islands along the coronal-ray structure behind a CME and the first observation of magnetic island coalescence with associated electron acceleration; and (5) white light and radio manifestations of CME-streamer interactions. These studies shed new light on the physics of coronal streamers, the acceleration of the slow wind, the physics of solar eruptions, the physics of magnetic reconnection and associated electron acceleration, the large-scale coronal wave phenomenon, as well as the physics accounting for CME shock-induced type II radio bursts. solar wind, coronal streamer, coronal mass ejection, solar radio burst, magnetic reconnection Citation:Chen Y. A review of recent studies on coronal dynamics: Streamers, coronal mass ejections, and their interactions.

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Section: Studies On Magnetic Islands Of Reconnections Along the Cme Csupporting

confidence: 65%

A review of recent studies on coronal dynamics: Streamers, coronal mass ejections, and their interactions

Chen

2013

Chin. Sci. Bull.

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“…First, at the ion inertial length scale, ions and electrons are decoupled (Pritchett 2001;Lu et al 2011). The resulting Hall effect determines the reconnection electric field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contributions to the cross shock electric field at supercritical perpendicular shocks: impact of the pickup ions

Yang¹,

Han²,

Yang³

et al. 2012

Astrophys Space Sci

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A particle-in-cell code is used to examine contributions of the pickup ions (PIs) and the solar wind ions (SWs) to the cross shock electric field at the supercritical, perpendicular shocks. The code treats the pickup ions self-consistently as a third component. Herein, two different runs with relative pickup ion density of 25% and 55% are presented in this paper. Present preliminary results show that: (1) in the low percentage (25%) pickup ion case, the shock front is nonstationary. During the evolution of this perpendicular shock, a nonstationary foot resulting from the reflected solar wind ions is formed in front of the old ramp, and its amplitude becomes larger and larger. At last, the nonstationary foot grows up into a new ramp and exceeds the old one. Such a nonstationary process can be formed periodically. When the new ramp begins to be formed in front of the old ramp, the Hall term mainly contributed by the solar wind ions becomes more and more important. The electric field E x is dominated by the Hall term when the new ramp exceeds the old one. Furthermore, an extended and stationary foot in pickup ion gyro-scale is located upstream of the nonstationary/self-reforming region within the shock front, and is always dominated by the Lorentz term contributed by the pickup ions; (2) in the high percentage (55%) pickup ion case, the amplitude of the stationary foot is increased as expected. One striking point is that the nonstationary region of the shock front evidenced by the self-reformation disappears. Instead, a stationary extended foot dominated by Lorentz term contributed by the pickup ions, and a stationary ramp dominated by Hall term contributed by the solar wind ions are clearly evidenced. The significance of the cross electric field on ion dynamics is also discussed.

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“…Therefore, these direct observational signatures suggest that the electrons are accelerated to relativistic energy by reconnecting electric field inside the diffusion region. On the other hand, the role of the electron dynamics inside the diffusive region of RCS is very important to understand the collissionless magnetic reconnection [7]. The 2D and 3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations was widely used to trace the typical electron trajectories [8,9].…”

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confidence: 99%

Nonlinear dependence of anomalous resistivity on the reconnecting electric field in the Earth’s magnetotail

Zhang

2012

Chin. Sci. Bull.

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Based upon the observational data of the fast magnetic reconnection in the nearly collisionless magnetotail and the particle in cell (PIC) simulations on the electron acceleration in the reconnecting current sheet with guide magnetic field, we self consistently solved one dimension Vlasov equation with the magnetotail parameters and realistic mass ratio to explore the relationship between the anomalous resistivity and the induced electric field. As compared with theoretic formula for the current driven ion-acoustic and Buneman anomalous resistivity, the anomalous resistivity may result from the ion acoustic instability for small reconnecting electric field and the Buneman instability for large reconnecting electric field. The discrepancy between the theoretic results and numerical simulations may be caused by the high frequency instability that results from the deviation of electron distribution from Maxwellian one. These results are consistent with the early experimental results and favorable for the fast reconnection to take place. In a collissioness coronal and the Earth's magnetotail plasma, anomalous resistivity caused by kinetic-scale wave-particle interactions is usually assumed to trigger fast magnetic reconnection, which was widely accepted as the main mechanism that converts free magnetic energy into heating and accelerating electrons and produces magnetospheric substorms [1][2][3][4]. The energetic electrons up to ∼300 keV were measured in a rare crossing of the diffusion region of reconnecting current sheet (RCS) by the Wind spacecraft [5]. Egedal et al.[6], after analyzing in-situ measurements of electron distribution functions inside the magnetotail RCS respectively from Wind and Cluster, found that the relative energy gain of the superthermal electrons is the same and nearly independent of their initial energy, while the electrons with the thermal energy are less accelerated. Hence, they concluded that the super thermal electrons are accelerated by reconnecting parallel electric field in vicinity of the reconnection region. For other acceleration mechanisms, such as Fermi acceleration of electrons in contracting magnetic islands and stochastic acceleration, the *Corresponding author (email: wuguiping@seu.edu.cn) relative energy gain of the electrons is a function of their initial energy. Therefore, these direct observational signatures suggest that the electrons are accelerated to relativistic energy by reconnecting electric field inside the diffusion region. On the other hand, the role of the electron dynamics inside the diffusive region of RCS is very important to understand the collissionless magnetic reconnection [7]. The 2D and 3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations was widely used to trace the typical electron trajectories [8,9]. It is found that, with the guiding magnetic field or external driven reconnection in RCS, the electrons can only be accelerated by the electric field in the X-type region and then spread out along the separatrices. In the O-type region, no obvious electron accelerati...

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Electron dynamics in collisionless magnetic reconnection

Cited by 19 publications

References 63 publications

A review of recent studies on coronal dynamics: Streamers, coronal mass ejections, and their interactions

A review of recent studies on coronal dynamics: Streamers, coronal mass ejections, and their interactions

Contributions to the cross shock electric field at supercritical perpendicular shocks: impact of the pickup ions

Nonlinear dependence of anomalous resistivity on the reconnecting electric field in the Earth’s magnetotail

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