Publications (21)
Hybrid Paricle-in-Cell Simulations of Electromagnetic Coupling and Waves From Streaming Burst Debris
Brett D. Keenan, Ari Le, Dan Winske +4
Various systems can be modeled as a point-like explosion of ionized debris into a magnetized, collisionless background plasma -- including astrophysical examples, active experiment…
Astrophysical explosions revisited: collisionless coupling of debris to magnetized plasma
Ari Le, Dan Winske, Adam Stanier +4
The coupling between a rapidly expanding cloud of ionized debris and an ambient magnetized plasma is revisited with a hybrid (kinetic ion/fluid electron) simulation code that allow…
Drift Turbulence, Particle Transport, and Anomalous Dissipation at the Reconnecting Magnetopause
Ari Le, William Daughton, Obioma Ohia +5
Using fully kinetic 3D simulations, the reconnection dynamics of asymmetric current sheets are examined at the Earth's magnetopause. The plasma parameters are selected to model MMS…
Hybrid codes (massless electron fluid)
D. Winske, Homa Karimabadi, Ari Le +3
Hybrid codes are widely used to model ion-scale phenomena in space plasmas. Hybrid codes differ from full particle (PIC) codes in that the electrons are modeled as a fluid that is…
Enhanced Electron Mixing and Heating in 3D Asymmetric Reconnection at the Earth's Magnetopause
Ari Le, William Daughton, Li-Jen Chen +1
Electron heating and mixing during asymmetric reconnection are studied with a 3D kinetic simulation that matches plasma parameters from Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft o…
Multi-species Ion Acceleration in 3D Magnetic Reconnection with Hybrid-kinetic Simulations
Qile Zhang, Fan Guo, William Daughton +4
Magnetic reconnection drives multi-species particle acceleration broadly in space and astrophysics. We perform the first 3D hybrid simulations (fluid electrons, kinetic ions) that…
A drift-kinetic method for obtaining gradients in plasma properties from single-point distribution function data
Blake A. Wetherton, Jan Egedal, Peter K. Montag +2
In this paper, we derive a new drift-kinetic method for estimating gradients in the plasma properties through a velocity space distribution at a single point. The gradients are int…
Earth's Alfvén wings driven by the April 2023 Coronal Mass Ejection
Li-Jen Chen, Daniel Gershman, Brandon Burkholder +33
We report a rare regime of Earth's magnetosphere interaction with sub-Alfvénic solar wind in which the windsock-like magnetosphere transforms into one with Alfvén wings. In the m…
Orientation and stability of asymmetric magnetic reconnection x-line
Yi-Hsin Liu, Michael Hesse, Tak Chu Li +2
The orientation and stability of the reconnection x-line in asymmetric geometry is studied using three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell simulations. We initiate reconnection at th…
Direct measurement of non-thermal electron acceleration from magnetically driven reconnection in a laboratory plasma
Abraham Chien, Lan Gao, Shu Zhang +24
Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous astrophysical process that rapidly converts magnetic energy into some combination of plasma flow energy, thermal energy, and non-thermal energ…
Double layer electric fields aiding the production of energetic flat-top distributions and superthermal electrons within the exhausts from magnetic reconnection
Jan Egedal, William Daughton, Ari Le +1
Using a kinetic simulation of magnetic reconnection it was recently shown that magnetic-field-aligned electric fields (E||) can be present over large spatial scales in reconnection…
Wavelet Methods for Studying the Onset of Strong Plasma Turbulence
Ari Le, Vadim Roytershteyn, Homa Karimabadi +3
Wavelet basis functions are a natural tool for analyzing turbulent flows containing localized coherent structures of different spatial scales. Here, wavelets are used to study the…
Two-Stage Bulk Electron Heating in the Diffusion Region of Anti-Parallel Symmetric Reconnection
Ari Le, Jan Egedal, William Daughton
Electron bulk energization in the diffusion region during anti-parallel symmetric reconnection entails two stages. First, the inflowing electrons are adiabatically trapped and ener…
Modulated deuteron spectra observed with the Magnetic Recoil neutron Spectrometer at the National Ignition Facility
Bao Nguyen, Yousef Lawrence, Christopher Wink +12
The Magnetic Recoil Spectrometer (MRS) on the National Ignition Facility is used to measure the neutron spectrum from deuterium-tritium fueled inertial confinement fusion implosion…
Magnetic reconnection in the era of exascale computing and multiscale experiments
Hantao Ji, William Daughton, Jonathan Jara-Almonte +3
Astrophysical plasmas have the remarkable ability to preserve magnetic topology, which inevitably gives rise to the accumulation of magnetic energy within stressed regions includin…
Simulation and assessment of ion kinetic effects in a direct-drive capsule implosion experiment
Ari Le, T. J. T. Kwan, M. J. Schmitt +2
The first simulations employing a kinetic treatment of both fuel and shell ions to model inertial confinement fusion experiments are presented, including results showing the import…
Intermittent Electron-Only Reconnection at Lunar Mini-Magnetospheres
Adam Stanier, Li-Jen Chen, Ari Le +2
Lunar crustal magnetic anomalies (LCMA) are sub-ion-gyroradius structures that have been shown to stand off the solar wind (SW) plasma from the Moon's surface, forming shock-like d…
A drift kinetic model for the expander region of a magnetic mirror
Blake A. Wetherton, Ari Le, Jan Egedal +4
We present a drift kinetic model for the free expansion of a thermal plasma out of a magnetic nozzle. This problem relates to plasma space propulsion systems, natural environments…
Collisionless Larmor Coupling and Blob Formation in a Laser-Plasma Expanding into a Magnetized Ambient Plasma
Lucas Rovige, Robert S. Dorst, Ari Le +8
Collisionless Larmor coupling is a fundamental process in space and astrophysical plasmas that enables momentum transfer between an expanding plasma and a magnetized ambient medium…
Hybrid-VPIC: an Open-Source Kinetic/Fluid Hybrid Particle-in-Cell Code
Ari Le, Adam Stanier, Lin Yin +3
Hybrid-VPIC is an extension of the open-source high-performance particle-in-cell (PIC) code VPIC incorporating hybrid kinetic ion/fluid electron solvers. This paper describes the m…
Three-Dimensional Stability of Current Sheets Supported by Electron Pressure Anisotropy
Ari Le, Adam Stanier, Bill Daughton +4
The stability of electron current sheets embedded within the reconnection exhaust is studied with a 3D fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulation. The electron current layers studie…