Enhanced Electron Mixing and Heating in 3D Asymmetric Reconnection at the Earth's Magnetopause

Abstract

Electron heating and mixing during asymmetric reconnection are studied with a 3D kinetic simulation that matches plasma parameters from Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft observations of a magnetopause diffusion region. The mixing and heating are strongly enhanced across the magnetospheric separatrix compared to a 2D simulation. The transport of particles across the separatrix in 3D is attributed to lower-hybrid drift turbulence excited at the steep density gradient near the magnetopause. In the 3D simulation (and not the 2D simulation), the electron temperature parallel to the magnetic field within the mixing layer is significantly higher than its upstream value in agreement with the MMS observations.

References in corpus (3)

• Kinetic signatures of the region surrounding the X-line in asymmetric (magnetopause) reconnection
• The Effects of Turbulence on Three-Dimensional Magnetic Reconnection at the Magnetopause
• Spacecraft observations and analytic theory of crescent-shaped electron distributions in asymmetric magnetic reconnection

Cited by in corpus (25)

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• Three-Dimensional Stability of Current Sheets Supported by Electron Pressure Anisotropy
• Local regimes of turbulence in 3D magnetic reconnection
• Electron dynamics surrounding the X-line in asymmetric magnetic reconnection
• Turbulence and Transport During Guide-Field Reconnection at the Magnetopause
• Laboratory verification of electron-scale reconnection regions modulated by a three-dimensional instability
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• An extended MHD study of the 16 October 2015 MMS diffusion region crossing
• Numerical Study of Magnetic Island Coalescence Using Magnetohydrodynamics With Adaptively Embedded Particle-In-Cell Model
• Instabilities and Turbulence in Low-$\beta$ Guide Field Reconnection Exhausts with Kinetic Riemann Simulations
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• Wave emission of non-thermal electron beams generated by magnetic reconnection
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