Two-fluid Simulations of Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in Pair Plasmas

Magnetic reconnection plays an important role in pulsar magnetosheres and in pulsar winds, where plasmas are composed of relativistic electron-positron pairs. Theoretical works and kinetic simulation works on relativistic magnetic reconnection in these environments are in progress, however, the fundamental properties such as the energy conversion rate and its composition are still under debate, especially in the magnetically dominated limit.

Relativistic MHD (RMHD) simulations are highly desirable to study theories and large-scale behaviors of magnetic reconnection. However, surprisingly, the number of non-ideal RMHD simulations has been quite limited. In order to study RMHD/fluid-scale development of magnetic reconnection, we newly developed a relativistic two-fluid code, which considers both electron and positron fluid motions. Using an inter-species friction force as an effective resistivity, we successfully simulated a nonlinear development of relativistic two-fluid reconnection in a large system.

In this poster, based on our simulation results, we will discuss the structure of quasi-steady Petschek reconnection, the energy budget (reconnection rate, energy composition), their dependence to the upstream condition and to the guide field, and implications for the relativistic reconnection theories.