Energy Dissipation in Electron-only Reconnection

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process in space and astrophysical plasmas that converts magnetic energy to particle energy. Recently, a novel kind of reconnection, called electron-only reconnection, has been observed in Earth's magnetosheath plasma. A defining characteristic of electron-only reconnection is that electron jets are observed but ion jets are absent. This is in contrast with traditional ion-coupled reconnection, where both ions and electrons exhibit outflowing velocity jets. Findings from the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission observations and particle-in-cell simulations show clear signatures of electron heating in electron-only reconnection events, while ions are not heated or cooled in these events. This result is unlike ion-coupled reconnection, where both ions and electrons are heated to varying degrees. The ratio of electron to ion dissipation increases with the local magnetic curvature, indicating that the partition of heat into ions and electrons is dependent on the current-sheet thickness.