Particle-in-cell simulation of collisionless undriven reconnection with open boundaries

Abstract

The results are discussed of a 2½ dimensional, undriven, fully open-boundary particle-in-cell simulation of symmetric, anti-parallel reconnection. It is shown that the reconnection rate as measured by the strength of the out-of-plane electric field component at the dominant x-line is fast and unrelated to the emergence of magnetic islands. In contrast, it is shown that this reconnection rate normalized by the inflowing VAlf,inBin at the x-line does show a striking relationship to island emergence in a majority of cases. A detailed study of an outflow jet is discussed. It is shown that for this example the concept of an outer electron diffusion region is a misnomer. In this jet, the electrons are tied to the magnetic field motion in the local Hall plane. The extended electron diffusion region (E2DR) surrounding a reconnection site, where the out-of-plane non-ideal electric field is greater than zero, is discussed. The width d of this region is shown to remain between the ion and electron bounce length scales, in contrast, to the behavior in driven reconnection simulations in which d evolves from the electron bounce width to the ion bounce width, where it remains. The boundaries of the E2DR in the outflow directions are shown to mark the positions at which the electrons are magnetized and begin their drift with the field in the local Hall plane. It is shown that the aspect ratio d/L, in which L is the length of the E2DR, yields an excellent approximation to the normalized reconnection rate while the expression Ti/L, in which Ti is the ion temperature at the x-line, yields an excellent approximation to the un-normalized rate. It is concluded that the dynamics of the electrons in the E2DR is intimately related to the reconnection rate and it is suggested that in two dimensional, anti parallel, symmetric simulations, this region is the correct choice for the controversial electron diffusion region.