The scaling of collisionless, magnetic reconnection for large systems
Abstract
Hybrid simulations with electron inertia, along with analytic scaling arguments, are presented which demonstrate that magnetic reconnection remains Alfvénic in a collisionless system even as the macroscopic scale length of the system becomes very large. This fast reconnection is facilitated by the whistler physics present near the x-line. The reconnection rate is found to be a universal constant corresponding to an inflow velocity towards the x-line of around 0.1 cA.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical Research Letters
- Pub Date:
- July 1999
- DOI:
- 10.1029/1999GL900481
- Bibcode:
- 1999GeoRL..26.2163S
- Keywords:
-
- Space Plasma Physics: Magnetic reconnection;
- Space Plasma Physics: Numerical simulation studies;
- Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetotail;
- Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetopause;
- cusp;
- and boundary layers