Electron self-reinforcing process of magnetic reconnection.
The growth of collisionless magnetic reconnection is discovered to be a nonlinear electron self-reinforcing process. Accelerated by the reconnection electric field, the small portion of energetic electrons in the vicinity of the X point are found to be the cause of the fast reconnection rate. This new mechanism explains that recent simulation results of different reconnection evolutions (i.e., steady state, quasisteady state, or nonsteady state) are essentially determined by the availability of feeding plasma inflows. Simulations are carried out with open boundary conditions.
Wan
Weigang
W
Plasma Theory Group, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
Lapenta
Giovanni
G