Abstract. The Geospace Environmental Modeling (GEM) Reconnection Challengeproject is presented and the important results, which are presented in a series of companion papers, are summarized. Magnetic reconnection is studied in a simple Harris sheet configuration with a specified set of initial conditions, including a finite amplitude, magnetic island perturbation to trigger the dynamics. The evolution of the system is explored with a broad variety of codes, ranging from fully electromagnetic particle in cell (PIC) codes to conventional resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) codes, and the results are compared. The goal is to identify the essential physics which is required to model collisionless magnetic reconnection. All models that include the Hall effect in the generalized Ohm's law produce essentially indistinguishable rates of reconnection, corresponding to nearly Alfv6nic inflow velocities. Thus the rate of reconnection is insensitive to the specific mechanism which breaks the frozen-in condition, whether resistivity, electron inertia, or electron thermal motion. The reconnection rate in the conventional resistive MHD model, in contrast, is dramatically smaller unless a large localized or current dependent resistivity is used. The Hall term brings the dynamics of whistler waves into the system. The quadratic dispersion property of whistlers (higher phase speed at smaller spatial scales) is the key to understanding these results. The implications of these results for trying to model the global dynamics of the magnetosphere are discussed.

Abstract. The Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) Challenge Harris current sheet problem is simulated in 2 1/2 dimensions using full particle, hybrid, and Hall MHD simulations. The same gross reconnection rate is found in all of the simulations independent of the type of code used, as long as the Hall term is included. In addition, the reconnection rate is independent of the mechanism which breaks the frozen-in flux condition, whether it is electron inertia or grid scale diffusion. The insensitivity to the mechanism which breaks the frozen-in condition is a consequence of whistler waves, which control the plasma dynamics at the small scales where the ions become unmagnetized. The dispersive character of whistlers, in which the phase velocity increases with decreasing scale size, allows the flux of electrons flowing away from the dissipation region to remain finite even as the strength of the dissipation approaches zero. As a consequence, the throttling of the reconnection process as a result of the small scale size of the dissipation region, which occurs in the magnetohydrodynamic model, no longer takes place. The important consequence is that the minimum physical model necessary to produce physically correct reconnection rates is a Hall MHD description which includes the Hall term in Ohm's law. A density depletion layer, which lies just downstream from the magnetic separatrix, is identified and linked to the strong in-plane Hall currents which characterize kinetic models of magnetic reconnection.

Abstract. Collisionless magnetic reconnection is studied using a 2 1/2-dimensional hybrid code including Hall dynamics and electron inertia. The simulations reveal that the dissipation region develops a two-scale structure: an inner electron region and an outer ion region. Close to the X line is a region with a scale of the electron collisionless skin depth, where the electron flows completely dominate those of the ions and the frozen-in magnetic flux constraint is broken. Outside of this region and encompassing the rest of the dissipation region, which scales like C/Wpi, the ion inertial length, is the Hall region where the electrons are frozen-in to the magnetic field but the ions are not, allowing the two species to flow at different velocities. The decoupling of electron and ion motion in the dissipation region has important implications for the rate of magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasma: the ions are not constrained to flow through the very narrow region where the frozen-in constraint is broken so that ion flux into the dissipation region is large. For the simulations which have been completed to date, the resulting rate of reconnection is a substantial fraction of the Alfv6n velocity and is controlled by the ions, not the electrons. The dynamics of the ions is found to be inherently nonfluidlike, with multiple ion beams present both at the X line and at the downstream boundary between the inflow and outflow plasma. The reconnection rate is only slightly affected by the temperature of the inflowing ions and in particular the structure of the dissipation region is controlled by the ion inertial length C/Wpi and not the ion Larmor radius based on the incoming ion temperature.

The transition in the magnetic reconnection rate from the resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) regime where the Alfvén wave controls reconnection to a regime in which the ions become unmagnetized and the whistler wave mediates reconnection is explored with 2‐D hybrid simulations. In the whistler regime the electrons carry the currents while the ions provide a neutralizing background. A simple physical picture is presented illustrating the role of the whistler in driving reconnection and the rate of whistler mediated reconnection is calculated analytically. The development of an out‐of‐plane component of the magnetic field is an observable signature of whistler driven reconnection.

Abstract. Hybrid simulations with electron inertia, along with analytic scaling arguments, are presented which demonstrate that magnetic reconnection remains Alfv6nic in a collisionless system even as the macroscopic scale length of the system becomes very large. This fast reconnection is facilitated by the whistler physics present near the x-line. The reconnection rate is found to be a universal constant corresponding to an inflow velocity towards the x-line of around 0.1 CA.