Relativistic magnetic reconnection driven by a laser interacting with a micro-scale plasma slab

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma process associated with conversion of the embedded magnetic field energy into kinetic and thermal plasma energy, via bulk acceleration and Ohmic dissipation. In many high-energy astrophysical events, magnetic reconnection is invoked to explain the non-thermal signatures. However, the processes by which field energy is transferred to the plasma to power the observed emission are still not properly understood. Here, via 3D particle-in-cell simulations of a readily available (TW-mJ-class) laser interacting with a micro-scale plasma slab, we show that when the electron beams excited on both sides of the slab approach the end of the plasma structure, ultrafast relativistic magnetic reconnection occurs in a magnetically-dominated (low-$\beta$) plasma. The resulting efficient particle acceleration leads to the emission of relativistic electron jets with cut-off energy $\sim$ 12 MeV. The proposed scenario can significantly improve understanding of fundamental questions such as reconnection rate, field dissipation and particle acceleration in relativistic magnetic reconnection.

10 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Formation of Hard Power-laws in the Energetic Particle Spectra Resulting from Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection
• The Mechanisms of Electron Heating and Acceleration during Magnetic Reconnection
• Physical Origin of the Quadrupole Out-of-Plane Magnetic Field in Hall-MHD Reconnection
• Particle acceleration in the driven relativistic reconnection
• Nano-scale ultra-dense Z-pinches formation from laser-irradiated nanowire arrays
• Particle Acceleration during Magnetic Reconnection in a Low-beta Pair Plasma
• Kinetic simulations of the lowest-order unstable mode of relativistic magnetostatic equilibria
• Origins of plateau formation in ion energy spectra under target normal sheath acceleration

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in the Laboratory
• Monoenergetic High-energy Ion Source via Femtosecond Laser Incident Parallel to a Microplate
• Electromagnetic Burst Generation during Annihilation of Magnetic Field in Relativistic Laser-Plasma Interaction
• Proton Acceleration in a Laser-induced Relativistic Electron Vortex
• Generation of cold magnetized relativistic plasmas at the rear of thin foils irradiated by ultra-high-intensity laser pulses