A long-standing problem in the study of space and astrophysical plasmas is to explain the production of energetic electrons as magnetic fields 'reconnect' and release energy. In the Earth's magnetosphere, electron energies reach hundreds of thousands of electron volts (refs 1-3), whereas the typical electron energies associated with large-scale reconnection-driven flows are just a few electron volts. Recent observations further suggest that these energetic particles are produced in the region where the magnetic field reconnects. In solar flares, upwards of 50 per cent of the energy released can appear as energetic electrons. Here we show that electrons gain kinetic energy by reflecting from the ends of the contracting 'magnetic islands' that form as reconnection proceeds. The mechanism is analogous to the increase of energy of a ball reflecting between two converging walls--the ball gains energy with each bounce. The repetitive interaction of electrons with many islands allows large numbers to be efficiently accelerated to high energy. The back pressure of the energetic electrons throttles reconnection so that the electron energy gain is a large fraction of the released magnetic energy. The resultant energy spectra of electrons take the form of power laws with spectral indices that match the magnetospheric observations.
During magnetic reconnection, the field lines must break and reconnect to release the energy that drives solar and stellar flares and other explosive events in space and in the laboratory. Exactly how this happens has been unclear, because dissipation is needed to break magnetic field lines and classical collisions are typically weak. Ion-electron drag arising from turbulence, dubbed 'anomalous resistivity', and thermal momentum transport are two mechanisms that have been widely invoked. Measurements of enhanced turbulence near reconnection sites in space and in the laboratory support the anomalous resistivity idea but there has been no demonstration from measurements that this turbulence produces the necessary enhanced drag. Here we report computer simulations that show that neither of the two previously favoured mechanisms controls how magnetic field lines reconnect in the plasmas of greatest interest, those in which the magnetic field dominates the energy budget. Rather, we find that when the current layers that form during magnetic reconnection become too intense, they disintegrate and spread into a complex web of filaments that causes the rate of reconnection to increase abruptly. This filamentary web can be explored in the laboratory or in space with satellites that can measure the resulting electromagnetic turbulence.
Using particle‐in‐cell simulations and kinetic theory, we explore the current‐driven turbulence and associated electron heating in the dissipation region during 3D magnetic reconnection with a guide field. At late time the turbulence is dominated by the Buneman and lower hybrid instabilities. Both produce electron holes that co‐exist but have very different propagation speeds. The associated scattering of electrons by the holes enhances electron heating in the dissipation region.
The nonlinear development of streaming instabilities in the current layers formed during magnetic reconnection with a guide field is explored. Theory and 3D particle-in-cell simulations reveal two distinct phases. First, the parallel Buneman instability grows and traps low velocity electrons. The remaining electrons then drive two forms of turbulence: the parallel electron-electron two-stream instability and the nearly perpendicular lower-hybrid instability. The high velocity electrons resonate with the turbulence and transfer momentum to the ions and low velocity electrons.
Previous 2D simulations of reconnection using a standard model of initially antiparallel magnetic fields have detected electron jets outflowing from the x point into the ion outflow exhausts. Associated with these jets are extended "outer electron diffusion regions." New PIC simulations with an ion to electron mass ratio as large as 1836 (an H(+) plasma) now show that the jets are strongly deflected and the outer electron diffusion region is broken up by a very weak out-of-plane magnetic guide field, even though the diffusion rate itself is unchanged. Jet outflow and deflection are interpreted in terms of electron dynamics and are compared to recent measurements of jets in the presence of a small guide field in Earth's magnetosheath.
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