Multi-species reconnection throughout the Heliosphere

Much progress has been made recently in understanding how reconnection occurs in systems composed solely of electrons and a single ion species. However, reconnection throughout the heliosphere can be much more complex. In the magnetosphere, substantial amounts of O+ can be present due to ionospheric outflows, In the transition region between the solar chromosphere and corona, there can be a substantial neutral population. These multi-species plasmas exhibit reconnection with a much more complicated spatial scale structure than electron-ion reconnection. In the presence of O+, for example, it has recently been confirmed through simulations that a new whistler wave arises at larger length scales. Results from four-fluid simulations (electrons, ions, heavy charged species, and neutrals) will be shown and cross checked with analytical arguments. For the case of O+ in the magnetotail, results from the CIS-CODIF experiment on CLUSTER will be compared with the simulations.