HR: 09:20h
AN: SM11B-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection in the Presence of Moderate Guide Fields
AU: * Hesse, M
EM: michael.hesse@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 612.3, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Kuznetsova, M
EM: masha@elbrus.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 612.3, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Schindler, K
EM: ks@tp4.ruhr-uni-bochum.de
AF: Ruhr-University, Theoretical Physics, Bochum, D-4630 Germany
AU: Birn, J
EM: jbirn@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, NIS-1, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AB: The dissipation mechanism of guide field magnetic reconnection remains a subject of intense scientific interest. On one hand, one set of recent studies have shown that particle inertia-based processes, which include thermal and bulk inertial effects, provide the reconnection electric field in the diffusion region. On the other hand, a second set of studies emphasizes the role of wave-particle interactions in providing anomalous resistivity in the diffusion region. In this presentation, we present analytical theory results, as well as three-dimensional PIC simulations of guide-field magnetic reconnection. We will show that the thermal electron inertia-based dissipation mechanism, expressed through nongyrotropic electron pressure tensors, remains viable in three dimensions. In addition, we will pay particular attention to the early phase of the reconnection evolution. In particular, we will present results of a simulation without initial perturbation in order to investigate the processes that lead to the formation of extended reconnection channels.
DE: 0545 Modeling (4255)
DE: 2723 Magnetic reconnection (7526, 7835)
DE: 2753 Numerical modeling
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7526)
DE: 7867 Wave/particle interactions (2483, 6984)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005