Diamagnetic suppression of component magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause
By M. Swisdak, B. Rogers, J. Drake, M. Shay. 2003
219 citations recorded by the source corpus.
[1] We present particle-in-cell simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection in a system (like the magnetopause) with a large density asymmetry across the current layer. In the presence of an ambient component of the magnetic field perpendicular to the reconnection plane the gradient creates a diamagnetic drift that advects the X-line with the electron diamagnetic velocity. When the relative drift between the ions and electrons is of the order the Alfven speed the large scale outflows from the X-line necessary for fast reconnection cannot develop and the reconnection is suppressed. We discuss how these effects vary with both the plasma β and the shear angle of the reconnecting field and discuss observational evidence for diamagnetic stabilization at the magnetopause.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e1af1c8a66d82ad1f6aa4c91020d264c44a0cfc7
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Citations in the corpus
- Cluster observations of electron holes in association with magnetotail reconnection and comparison to simulations (2005, background): “[2] The importance of waves in the reconnection process has long been of interest, beginning with the recognition that in the Sweet-Parker model, the rate depended on the square root of the resistivity [Parker, 1957; Sweet, 1958 ], which was negligible in a collisionless plasma.”
- Formation of secondary islands during magnetic reconnection (2006, background): “The present simulations therefore do not include the effects of diamagnetic stabilization that were previously found to be important at high values of the ratio of the plasma to magnetic field pressure, b [Swisdak et al., 2003].”
- Collisionless magnetic reconnection in an asymmetric current sheet (2008, methodology): “As noted previously by Swisdak et al. [2003] , the combination of the guide field and pressure gradient produce a drift of the X line in the direction of the electron diamagnetic drift.”
- THE VECTOR DIRECTION OF THE INTERSTELLAR MAGNETIC FIELD OUTSIDE THE HELIOSPHERE (2010, methodology): “Particle-incell (PIC) simulations of reconnection have demonstrated why this occurs: diamagnetic drifts in plasmas with a high β but shear angles < 180◦ suppress reconnection (Swisdak et al. 2003).”
- MESSENGER observations of magnetopause structure and dynamics at Mercury (2013, background): “(a) Comparison of b to magnetic shear, together with the condition of Swisdak et al. [2010] for diamagnetic suppression of reconnection for L = di (dashed line), to assess reconnection enhancements in the low-b environment.”