Ohm's Law, the Reconnection Rate, and Energy Conversion in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection

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Hauptverfasser: Liu, Yi-Hsin, Hesse, Michael, Genestreti, Kevin, Nakamura, Rumi, Burch, Jim, Cassak, Paul, Bessho, Naoki, Eastwood, Jonathan, Phan, Tai, Swisdak, Marc, Toledo-Redondo, Sergio, Hoshino, Masahiro, Norgren, Cecilia, Ji, Hantao, Nakamura, TKM
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Liu, Yi-Hsin
Hesse, Michael
Genestreti, Kevin
Nakamura, Rumi
Burch, Jim
Cassak, Paul
Bessho, Naoki
Eastwood, Jonathan
Phan, Tai
Swisdak, Marc
Toledo-Redondo, Sergio
Hoshino, Masahiro
Norgren, Cecilia
Ji, Hantao
Nakamura, TKM
author_facet Liu, Yi-Hsin
Hesse, Michael
Genestreti, Kevin
Nakamura, Rumi
Burch, Jim
Cassak, Paul
Bessho, Naoki
Eastwood, Jonathan
Phan, Tai
Swisdak, Marc
Toledo-Redondo, Sergio
Hoshino, Masahiro
Norgren, Cecilia
Ji, Hantao
Nakamura, TKM
contents Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous plasma process that transforms magnetic energy into particle energy during eruptive events throughout the universe. Reconnection not only converts energy during solar flares and geomagnetic substorms that drive space weather near Earth, but it may also play critical roles in the high energy emissions from the magnetospheres of neutron stars and black holes. In this review article, we focus on collisionless plasmas that are most relevant to reconnection in many space and astrophysical plasmas. Guided by first-principles kinetic simulations and spaceborne in-situ observations, we highlight the most recent progress in understanding this fundamental plasma process. We start by discussing the non-ideal electric field in the generalized Ohm's law that breaks the frozen-in flux condition in ideal magnetohydrodynamics and allows magnetic reconnection to occur. We point out that this same reconnection electric field also plays an important role in sustaining the current and pressure in the current sheet and then discuss the determination of its magnitude (i.e., the reconnection rate), based on force balance and energy conservation. This approach to determining the reconnection rate is applied to kinetic current sheets of a wide variety of magnetic geometries, parameters, and background conditions. We also briefly review the key diagnostics and modeling of energy conversion around the reconnection diffusion region, seeking insights from recently developed theories. Finally, future prospects and open questions are discussed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_00875
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Ohm's Law, the Reconnection Rate, and Energy Conversion in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection
Liu, Yi-Hsin
Hesse, Michael
Genestreti, Kevin
Nakamura, Rumi
Burch, Jim
Cassak, Paul
Bessho, Naoki
Eastwood, Jonathan
Phan, Tai
Swisdak, Marc
Toledo-Redondo, Sergio
Hoshino, Masahiro
Norgren, Cecilia
Ji, Hantao
Nakamura, TKM
Plasma Physics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Space Physics
Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous plasma process that transforms magnetic energy into particle energy during eruptive events throughout the universe. Reconnection not only converts energy during solar flares and geomagnetic substorms that drive space weather near Earth, but it may also play critical roles in the high energy emissions from the magnetospheres of neutron stars and black holes. In this review article, we focus on collisionless plasmas that are most relevant to reconnection in many space and astrophysical plasmas. Guided by first-principles kinetic simulations and spaceborne in-situ observations, we highlight the most recent progress in understanding this fundamental plasma process. We start by discussing the non-ideal electric field in the generalized Ohm's law that breaks the frozen-in flux condition in ideal magnetohydrodynamics and allows magnetic reconnection to occur. We point out that this same reconnection electric field also plays an important role in sustaining the current and pressure in the current sheet and then discuss the determination of its magnitude (i.e., the reconnection rate), based on force balance and energy conservation. This approach to determining the reconnection rate is applied to kinetic current sheets of a wide variety of magnetic geometries, parameters, and background conditions. We also briefly review the key diagnostics and modeling of energy conversion around the reconnection diffusion region, seeking insights from recently developed theories. Finally, future prospects and open questions are discussed.
title Ohm's Law, the Reconnection Rate, and Energy Conversion in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection
topic Plasma Physics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Space Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.00875