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| Titel |
On the collisionless magnetic reconnection rate of order 0.1 |
| VerfasserIn |
Yi-Hsin Liu, Michael Hesse, Fan Guo, William Daughton, Hui Li, Paul Cassak, Michael Shay |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2017
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 19 (2017) |
| Datensatznummer |
250145438
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2017-9378.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Magnetic reconnection is the process whereby a change in topology of the magnetic field allows for a rapid release of magnetic energy into thermal and kinetic energy of the surrounding plasma. The magnitude of the reconnection electric field parallel to the X-line (where magnetic field lines break) not only determines the rate that reconnection proceeds, but can also be crucial for efficiently accelerating highly energetic super-thermal particles. Observations and numerical simulations reveal that essentially collisionless magnetic reconnection of a Harris-type current sheet in the steady state tends to proceed with a normalized reconnection rate of order 0.1, independent of dissipation mechanism or physical model. However, the explanation of this value has remained unclear for decades. We propose a model that provides insight to this long standing problem. The prediction from this model compares favorably to particle-in-cell simulations of magnetic reconnection in both the non-relativistic and extremely relativistic limits. These results may be important for applications to solar, magnetospheric, fusion, and astrophysical settings. |
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