paper

Scaling of magnetic reconnection in relativistic collisionless plasmas

arXiv:1410.3178 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.095002

Abstract

Using fully kinetic simulations, we study the scaling of the inflow speed of collisionless magnetic reconnection from the non-relativistic to ultra-relativistic limit. In the anti-parallel configuration, the inflow speed increases with the upstream magnetization parameter and approaches the light speed when , leading to an enhanced reconnection rate. In all regimes, the divergence of pressure tensor is the dominant term responsible for breaking the frozen-in condition at the x-line. The observed scaling agrees well with a simple model that accounts for the Lorentz contraction of the plasma passing through the diffusion region. The results demonstrate that the aspect ratio of the diffusion region remains in both the non-relativistic and relativistic limits.

arXiv comment5 pages, 3 figures, submitted

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