A generalized, intuitive two-fluid picture of 2D non-driven collisionless magnetic reconnection is described using results from a full-3D numerical simulation. The relevant two-fluid equations simplify to the condition that the flux associated with canonical circulation Q ¼ m e r  u e þ q e B is perfectly frozen into the electron fluid. In the reconnection geometry, flux tubes defined by Q are convected with the central electron current, effectively stretching the tubes and increasing the magnitude of Q exponentially. This, coupled with the fact that Q is a sum of two quantities, explains how the magnetic fields in the reconnection region reconnect and give rise to strong electron acceleration. The Q motion provides an interpretation for other phenomena as well, such as spiked central electron current filaments. The simulated reconnection rate was found to agree with a previous analytical calculation having the same geometry. Energy analysis shows that the magnetic energy is converted and propagated mainly in the form of the Poynting flux, and helicity analysis shows that the canonical helicity Ð P Á Q dV as a whole must be considered when analyzing reconnection. A mechanism for whistler wave generation and propagation is also described, with comparisons to recent spacecraft observations. Published by AIP Publishing. [http://dx.

Current sheets are ubiquitous plasma structures that play the crucial role of being energy sources for various magnetic phenomena. Although a plethora of current sheet equilibrium solutions have been found, the collisionless process through which a disequilibrated current sheet relaxes or equilibrates remains largely unknown. Here we show, through analyses of phase-space distributions of single-particle orbit classes and particle-in-cell simulations, that collisionless transitions among the orbit classes are responsible for this process. Bifurcated current sheets, which are readily observed in geospace but whose origins remain controversial, are shown to naturally arise from the equilibration process and thus are likely to be the underlying structures in various phenomena; comparisons of spacecraft observations to particle-in-cell simulations support this fact. The bearing of this result on previous explanations of bifurcated structures is also discussed.

The edge confinement barrier of high-confinement mode (H-mode) plasma involves a variety of plasma waves alongside with fluid instabilities and collective particle transport during the barrier collapse. We demonstrate a new method of resolving the plasma waves by measuring the modulations embedded in the second harmonic electron cyclotron emission (ECE). Utilizing mm-wave heterodyne detection and fast digitization technologies on the KSTAR tokamak, we resolve not only the frequency spectrum but the wavenumber as well. At the plasma boundary during the barrier collapse, we observe multiple bursts of broadband whistler-frequency (<8 GHz) waves, together with intense narrowband emissions. The narrowband emissions exhibit rapid rising and falling tones within a few microseconds. Bispectral analyses reveal the existence of nonlinear interactions between the broadband and the narrowband waves, confirming their concurrence in the barrier zone. We estimate that the vertical wavenumber of the narrowband waves is comparable to that of a whistler wave, utilizing multiple mm-wave mixer channels. Our work opens a new experimental way to study wave–wave and wave–particle interactions in magnetically confined plasmas.

Stochastic heating has been known to be a powerful ion heating mechanism in the solar wind, atmosphere, and flares. In this Letter, we show that stochastic ion heating is inherent to transient collisionless magnetic reconnection. The explanation exploits the connected nature of electron canonical vorticity to show analytically that the in-plane electric and magnetic fields in a typical reconnection geometry satisfy the condition for stochastic heating of ions. Electron fluid simulations, test ion simulations, and comparisons to experiments all support the existence of this mechanism.

The origin of anomalous, non-classical ion heating during magnetic reconnection has been a longstanding problem. It is verified via fully kinetic analyses and particle-in-cell simulations that stochastic heating is the main ion heating mechanism in collisionless magnetic reconnection up to moderate guide fields. Strong in-plane Hall electric fields that form during reconnection render ion motions chaotic and de facto broaden the ion distribution function. The mechanism is consistent with numerous observed features of ion heating in reconnection, such as the preferential heating of ions with higher mass-to-charge ratios and the non-conservation of the ion magnetic moment.