Effects of Temperature on Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection Properties

Properties of magnetic reconnection, such as the reconnection rate and the outflow speed, have been thought to depend mainly on the upstrem magnetic field and density. Using fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we have shown that the effects of the temperature on reconnection properties are also significant. As we keep the upstream magnetic field, plasma density the same, and change the total temperature such that the plasma beta ranges from 0.25 to 6, the outflow speed decreases linearly with the Larmor radius of the upstream ions, and the reconnection rate decreases linearly with the upstream temperature. The structure of the reconnection is also affected. Notably, the width of the out-of-plane electron velocity increases linearly with the temperature.