New Insights into Dissipation in the Electron Layer During Magnetic Reconnection

Abstract

Detailed comparisons are reported between laboratory observations of electron-scale dissipation layers near a reconnecting X-line and direct two-dimensional full-particle simulations. Many experimental features of the electron layers, such as insensitivity to the ion mass, are reproduced by the simulations; the layer thickness, however, is about 3-5 times larger than the predictions. Consequently, the leading candidate 2D mechanism based on collisionless electron nongyrotropic pressure is insufficient to explain the observed reconnection rates. These results suggest that, in addition to the residual collisions, 3D effects play an important role in electron-scale dissipation during fast reconnection.

17 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (2)

• In situ evidence for the structure of the magnetic null in a 3D reconnection event in the Earth's magnetotail
• Satellite Observations of Separator Line Geometry of Three-Dimensional Magnetic Reconnection

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• A new fast reconnection model in a collisionless regime
• Fast and slow two-fluid magnetic reconnection