Evolution of Magnetic Reconnection in an Electron-scale Current Sheet
Recently, a new type of magnetic reconnection, electron-only reconnection—where there is no obvious ion flow and heating—has been observed in various plasma environments. Previous kinetic simulations have shown that electron-only reconnection is a precursor of standard reconnection. In this paper, b...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad9b15 |
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| Summary: | Recently, a new type of magnetic reconnection, electron-only reconnection—where there is no obvious ion flow and heating—has been observed in various plasma environments. Previous kinetic simulations have shown that electron-only reconnection is a precursor of standard reconnection. In this paper, by performing a 2.5-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation, we investigate the evolution of electron-only magnetic reconnection to standard magnetic reconnection in a current sheet, whose initial width is of the electron inertial length. In the electron-only reconnection stage, electron outflow produces the electron-scale ${B}_{z}$ pileup, and ions are slightly accelerated in the outflow direction by the Hall electric field force. As the reconnection electric field expands and ${B}_{z}$ is piled up to the ion scale, ions start to be further accelerated inside the ion diffusion region and reflected by the ${B}_{z}$ to the outflow direction. With ${B}_{z}$ pileup as the bond, ions gradually transit from being accelerated by the Hall electric field to being coupled in reconnection by the Lorentz force. |
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| ISSN: | 1538-4357 |