HR: 12:05h
AN: SM31E-08    [PDF]
TI: The Electron Diffusion Region in Component Magnetic Reconnection
AU: * Hesse, M
EM: michael.hesse@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 696, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Kuznetsova, M
EM: masha@elbrus.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 696, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Birn, J
EM: jbirn@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, NIS-1, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AB: The reconnection of anti-parallel magnetic field is facilitated by the demagnetization of electrons in the inner diffusion region. Inertial effects due to electron bounce motions in the field reversal region have as their macroscopic manifestations nongyrotropies in the electron pressure tensor. The electric field maintained by the intermittent electron acceleration in the inner diffusion region, or, equivalently, by the divergence of the electron pressure tensor, provides the reconnection electric field. In the case of a significant guide magnetic field, however, electron may be magnetized and thus not able to execute bounce motions in the inner diffusion region. As a result, the structure of the diffusion region is quite different from that of anti-parallel reconnection. We will present a detailed investigation of the reconnection layer for component reconnection, based primarily on analytical arguments and supported by particle-in-cell simulations. We will demonstrate that mixing of electron distributions from within and from adjacent to the thin, central electron current layer can provide electron nongyrotropies, with similar macroscopic consequences as in the anti-parallel case.
DE: 7827 Kinetic and MHD theory
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection
DE: 7843 Numerical simulation studies
SC: SPA - Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting