Angular momentum transport in thin accretion disks and intermittent accretion

The plasma modes, transporting angular momentum in accretion disks, under minimally restrictive conditions when the magnetic energy density is significant relative to the thermal energy density, are shown to be singular if the ideal MHD approximation is adopted. A similarity with the modes producing magnetic reconnection in current carrying plasmas is established. The combined effects of finite plasma temperature, of plasma compressibility, of the gradient of the rotation frequency, and of appropriate transport processes (outside ideal MHD) are involved in the onset of these nonaxisymmetric and locally corotating modes.     

不可压缩等离子体的2维磁场重联模型

提出了一种2维磁场重联模型。磁场重联过程中的电荷分离在等离子体中产生静电场,等离子体在电场中的漂移运动可以解释阿尔芬速度量级的出流。该磁场重联模型给出如下结论:Sweet-Parker模型描述的重联率强烈地依赖于电子质量与离子质量之比;反常电阻率正比于离子惯性长度和电流片宽度比值的平方; 相对论效应和高温等离子体中电子-正电子对的产生可以提高重联率; 电磁波的激发对于磁能的损耗是必要的。     

Collisionless magnetic reconnection in the magnetosphere

Magnetic reconnection underlies the physical mechanism of explosive phenomena in the solar atmosphere and planetary magnetospheres, where plasma is usually collisionless. In the standard model of collisionless magnetic reconnection, the diffusion region consists of two substructures: an electron diffusion region is embedded in an ion diffusion region, in which their scales are based on the electron and ion inertial lengths. In the ion diffusion region, ions are unfrozen in the magnetic fields while electrons are magnetized. The resulted Hall effect from the different motions between ions and electrons leads to the production of the in-plane currents, and then generates the quadrupolar structure of out-of-plane magnetic field. In the electron diffusion region, even electrons become unfrozen in the magnetic fields, and the reconnection electric field is contributed by the off-diagonal electron pressure terms in the generalized Ohm's law. The reconnection rate is insensitive to the specific mechanism to break the frozen-in condition, and is on the order of 0.1. In recent years, the launching of Cluster, THEMIS, MMS, and other spacecraft has provided us opportunities to study collisionless magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetosphere, and to verify and extend more insights on the standard model of collisionless magnetic reconnection. In this paper, we will review what we have learned beyond the standard model with the help of observations from these spacecraft as well as kinetic simulations.     

Observational Aspects of Magnetic Reconnection at the Earth’s Magnetosphere

Magnetic field reconnection has shown to be the dominant process in the solar wind-Earth’s magnetosphere interaction. It enables mass, momentum, and energy exchange between different plasma regimes, and it is regarded as an efficient plasma acceleration and heating mechanism. Reconnection has been observed to occur in laboratory plasmas, at planetary magnetospheres in our Solar System, and the Sun. In this work, we focus on analyzing the characteristics of magnetic reconnection at the Earth’s magnetosphere according to spaceborne observations in the vicinity of our planet. Firstly, the locations where magnetic field reconnection are expected to occur within the vast magnetospheric region are addressed, and is shown how they are influenced by changes in the interplanetary magnetic field direction. The main magnetic field and plasma signatures of magnetic reconnection are discussed from both theoretical and observational points of view. Spacecraft observations of ion inertial length scale reconnection are also presented.     

Three-dimensional dynamics of collisionless magnetic reconnection in large-scale pair plasmas

Using the largest three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to date, collisionless magnetic reconnection in large-scale electron-positron plasmas without a guide field is shown to involve complex interaction of tearing and kink modes. The reconnection onset is patchy and occurs at multiple sites which self-organize to form a single, large diffusion region. The diffusion region tends to elongate in the outflow direction and become unstable to secondary kinking and formation of "plasmoid-rope" structures with finite extent in the current direction. The secondary kink folds the reconnection current layer, while plasmoid ropes at times follow the folding of the current layer. The interplay between these secondary instabilities plays a key role in controlling the time-dependent reconnection rate in large-scale systems.     

New measure of the dissipation region in collisionless magnetic reconnection

A new measure to identify a small-scale dissipation region in collisionless magnetic reconnection is proposed. The energy transfer from the electromagnetic field to plasmas in the electron's rest frame is formulated as a Lorentz-invariant scalar quantity. The measure is tested by two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations in typical configurations: symmetric and asymmetric reconnection, with and without the guide field. The innermost region surrounding the reconnection site is accurately located in all cases. We further discuss implications for nonideal MHD dissipation.     

Out-of-plane bipolar and quadrupolar magnetic fields generated by shear flows in two-dimensional resistive reconnection

Shear flows perpendicular to the anti-parallel reconnecting magnetic field are often observed in magnetosphere and interplanetary plasmas, and in laboratory plasmas toroidal differential rotations can also be generated in magnetic confinement devices. Our study finds that such shear flows can generate bipolar or quadrupolar out-of-plane magnetic field perturbations in a two-dimensional resistive MHD reconnection without the Hall effects. The quadrupolar structure has otherwise been thought a typical Hall MHD reconnection feature caused by the in-plane electron convection. The results will challenge the conventional understanding and satellite observations of the signature of reconnection evidences in space plasmas.     

New ion-wave path in the energy cascade

We present the results of kinetic numerical simulations that demonstrate the existence of a novel branch of electrostatic nonlinear waves driven by particle trapping processes. These waves have an acoustic-type dispersion with phase speed comparable to the ion thermal speed and would thus be heavily Landau damped in the linear regime. At variance with the ion-acoustic waves, this novel electrostatic branch can exist at a small but finite amplitude even for low values of the electron to ion temperature ratio. Our results provide a new interpretation of observations in space plasmas, where a significant level of electrostatic activity is observed in the high frequency region of the solar-wind turbulent spectra.     

Cause of sudden magnetic reconnection in a laboratory plasma

The cause for sudden reconnection in reversed field pinch plasmas is determined experimentally for two cases: large reconnection events (the sawtooth crash) and small reconnection events during improved confinement. We measure the term in the MHD equations which represents the driving (or damping) of edge tearing modes due to the axisymmetric magnetic field. The term is negative for large reconnection events (the modes are stable, implying that reconnection may be driven by nonlinear coupling to other modes) and positive for small reconnection events (modes are unstable, reconnection is spontaneous).     

Laser-induced fluorescence measurement of the ion-energy-distribution function in a collisionless reconnection experiment

Observations in space and laboratory plasmas suggest magnetic reconnection as a mechanism for ion heating and formation of non-Maxwellian ion velocity distribution functions (IVDF). Laser-induced fluorescence measurements of the IVDF parallel to the X line of a periodically driven reconnection experiment are presented. A time-resolved analysis yields the evolution of the IVDF within a reconnection cycle. It is shown that reconnection causes a strong increase of the ion temperature, where the strongest increase is found at the maximum reconnection rate. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that ion heating is a consequence of the in-plane electric field that forms around the X line in response to reconnection.     

Endogenous magnetic reconnection and associated high energy plasma processes

An endogenous reconnection process involves a driving factor that lays inside the layer where a drastic change of magnetic field topology occurs. A process of this kind is shown to take place when an electron temperature gradient is present in a magnetically confined plasma and the evolving electron temperature fluctuations are anisotropic. The width of the reconnecting layer remains significant even when large macroscopic distances are considered. In view of the fact that there are plasmas in the Universe with considerable electron thermal energy contents this feature can be relied upon in order to produce generation or conversion of magnetic energy, high energy particle populations and momentum and angular momentum transport.     

Non-asymptotic theory of collisionless reconnecting modes

The problem of collisionless modes that produce magnetic reconnection is solved in the physically meaningful limit where the mode amplitude is the solution of an integral equation which retains gyro radius effects to all orders. When the electron temperature gradient is comparable to the density gradient a new strong stabilizing effect is found.     

Low frequency Whistler waves excited in fast magnetic reconnection processes

Whistler waves generated in fast magnetic reconnection processes of collisionless high beta plasmas are reviewed in experiments and satellite observations, as well as in theory and simulation, and further studied in the two-fluid theory. It is found that low frequency whistler waves can be excited in tile ion inertial range of the reconnection region. The wave is found right-handed polarized with a quadrupolar out-of-plane magnetic perturbation, in accord with satellite observations in the geomagnetosphere.     

无碰撞等离子体中电子束流不稳定性的时空演化研究

应用二、三维相对论电磁粒子模拟程序研究双电子束流在无碰撞等离子体中传播引起的横向 电磁(Weibel类型)不稳定性和纵向静电不稳定性的发展演化过程.讨论了纯粹Weibel不稳定 性的发生和非线性饱和过程，观察到电流束合并、磁场重联等引起的电子横向加热现象.研 究了电流束传播方向激发的静电场对快电子束传播的影响，观察到其导致的束的横向调制、 磁场通道破坏现象.对这些过程的细致研究对更好的理解快点火物理中自生磁场的产生、快 电子输运等过程有重要意义.     

Time window for magnetic reconnection in plasma configurations with velocity shear

It is shown that the rate of magnetic field line reconnection can be clocked by the evolution of the large-scale processes that are responsible for the formation of the current layers where reconnection can take place. In unsteady plasma configurations, such as those produced by the onset of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in a plasma with a velocity shear, qualitatively different magnetic structures are produced depending on how fast the reconnection process develops on the external clock set by the evolving large-scale configuration.     

托卡马克中漂移不稳定性的回旋动理学二维本征模方程

从弗拉索夫方程出发，导出了托卡马克等离子体中漂移不稳定性的回旋动理学二维本征模积分方程组。该方程组保留了离子的动理学效应，包括沿磁场的运动、磁场梯度和曲率漂移以及有限拉莫半径效应。与传统的采用气球模表象得到的一维回旋动理学方程(其只能给出不稳定模沿磁场线的结构)不同，该方程组不仅能给出托卡马克等离子体中漂移不稳定模的径向结构，同时还考虑了由离子的环形性漂移引起的相邻极向模之间的线性耦合，进而得到模的极向结构。该结果为相应的数值模拟研究提供了理论基础。     

压强梯度对托卡马克等离子体有理面上由磁场曲率驱动的漂移模的稳定效应

在流体模型内，我们导出了一个托卡马克等离子体内环形漂移模的色散关系，该色散关系包含了离子压强梯度、磁场梯度与曲率。一方面，磁场梯度与曲率驱动有理面上的不稳定性。另一方面，压强梯度使这些不稳定性稳定。通过解析和数值两种方法，我们获得了把不稳定性增长率压缩到零的临界压强梯度阈值。     

Driven reconnection about a magnetic X-line with strong guide component

A two-dimensional, two-fluid model is used to investigate driven magnetic reconnection in collisionless or semicollisional plasmas. The reconnection is driven by externally induced plasma flows in a background magnetic configuration that has a hyperbolic null component in the reconnection plane and a strong component, the so-called guide component, perpendicular to that plane. A dynamic solution is obtained in which the reconnection proceeds in two phases: an initial one whose characteristic rate is a fraction of the Alfvén frequency, and a later one whose rate is determined by the electron collision frequency.     

Two-scale structure of the electron dissipation region during collisionless magnetic reconnection

Particle-in-cell simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection are presented that demonstrate that reconnection remains fast in very large systems. The electron dissipation region develops a distinct two-scale structure along the outflow direction. Consistent with fast reconnection, the length of the electron current layer stabilizes and decreases with decreasing electron mass, approaching the ion inertial length for a proton-electron plasma. Surprisingly, the electrons form a super-Alfvénic outflow jet that remains decoupled from the magnetic field and extends large distances downstream from the x line.