Effects from switching on PIC simulations: Geospace Environmental Modeling (GEM) reconnection setup revisited

Electromagnetic Parcile-In-Cell (PIC) simulations are widely used to study plasma phenomena where kinetic scales are coupled to fluid scales. One of these phenomena is the evolution of magnetic reconnection. Switch-on effects have been described earlier for magneto-/hydrodynamic (MHD and HD) simulations, where oscillations are ignited by the initial condition and the usual instantaneous way of starting a simulation run. Here we revisit the GEM setup (a Harris current sheet) and demonstrate the immediate generation of oscillations propagating perpendicular to the magnetic shear layer (in Bz). Also we show how these oscillations do not dissipate quickly and will later be mode-converted to generate wave power, first in By, much later also in Bx (pointing along the shear direction). One needs to take care not to interpret these oscillations as physical wave modes associated with the nature of reconnection. We propose a method to prevent such switch-on effects from the beginning, that should be considered for implementation in other PIC simulation codes as well.