What Can We Learn about Magnetotail Reconnection from 2D PIC Harris-Sheet Simulations?

Abstract

The Magnetosphere Multiscale Mission (MMS) will provide the first opportunity to probe electron-scale physics during magnetic reconnection in Earth’s magnetopause and magnetotail. This article will address only tail reconnection—as a non-steady-state process in which the first reconnected field lines advance away from the $x$ -point in flux pile-up fronts directed Earthward and anti-Earthward. An up-to-date microscopic physical picture of electron and ion-scale collisionless tail reconnection processes is presented based on 2-D Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations initiated from a Harris current sheet and on Cluster and Themis measurements of tail reconnection. The successes and limitations of simulations when compared to measured reconnection are addressed in detail. The main focus is on particle and field diffusion region signatures in the tail reconnection geometry. The interpretation of these signatures is vital to enable spacecraft to identify physically significant reconnection events, to trigger meaningful data transfer from MMS to Earth and to construct a useful overall physical picture of tail reconnection. New simulation results and theoretical interpretations are presented for energy transport of particles and fields, for the size and shape of electron and ion diffusion regions, for processes occurring near the fronts and for the $\mathbf{j} \times \mathbf{B}$ (Hall) electric field.