Biermann battery-mediated magnetic reconnection in 3-D colliding plasmas

Abstract

Recent experiments have demonstrated magnetic reconnection between colliding plasma plumes, where the reconnecting magnetic fields were self-generated in the plasma by the Biermann battery effect. Using fully kinetic 3-D simulations, we show the full evolution of the magnetic fields and plasma in these experiments including self-consistent magnetic field generation about the expanding plume. The collision of the two plasmas drives the formation of a current sheet, where reconnection occurs in a strongly time-and space-dependent manner, demonstrating a new 3-D reconnection mechanism. Specifically, we observe fast, vertically-localized Biermann-mediated reconnection, an inherently 3-D process where the temperature profile in the current sheet coupled with the out-of-plane ablation density profile conspires to break inflowing field lines, reconnecting the field downstream. Fast reconnection is sustained by both the Biermann effect and the traceless electron pressure tensor, where the development of plasmoids appears to modulate the contribution of the latter. We present a simple and general formulation to consider the relevance of Biermann-mediated reconnection in general astrophysical scenarios.

6 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (4)

• On the Value of the Reconnection Rate
• Magnetic field generation by the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in laser-driven planar plastic targets
• Magnetic reconnection in plasma under inertial confinement fusion conditions driven by heat flux effects in Ohm's law
• Non-Thermal Electron Energization from Magnetic Reconnection in Laser-Driven Plasmas

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Review of the First Charged-Particle Transport Coefficient Comparison Workshop
• Kinetic simulation of magnetic field generation and collisionless shock formation in expanding laboratory plasmas
• Detection of current-sheet and bipolar ion flows in a self-generated antiparallel magnetic field of laser-produced plasmas for magnetic reconnection research
• Nonthermal electron and ion acceleration by magnetic reconnection in large laser-driven plasmas
• X-ray imaging and electron temperature evolution in laser-driven magnetic reconnection experiments at the National Ignition Facility
• Generation of cold magnetized relativistic plasmas at the rear of thin foils irradiated by ultra-high-intensity laser pulses
• Scaling of Small-Scale Dynamo Properties in the Rayleigh-Taylor Instability