Magnetic Field Reconnection Research Articles

Entropy maximization and instability in uniformly magnetized plasmas

A regime in which a uniformly magnetized plasma does not maximize the entropy and possibly becomes unstable to a spatial perturbation in the magnetic field is explored. The physical implication is considered in the context of current generation, magnetic field reconnection, and the dynamo effect.

Transmission line analogy for relativistic Poynting-flux jets

Radio emission, polarization, and Faraday rotation maps of the radio jet of the galaxy 3C 303 have shown that one knot of this jet carries a {\it galactic}-scale electric current and that it is magnetically dominated. We develop the theory of magnetically dominated or Poynting-flux jets by making an analogy of a Poynting jet with a transmission line or waveguide carrying a net current and having a potential drop across it (from the jet's axis to its radius) and a definite impedance which we derive. Time-dependent but not necessarily small perturbations of a Poynting-flux jet are described by the "telegrapher's equations." These predict the propagation speed of disturbances and the effective wave impedance for forward and backward propagating wave components. A localized disturbance of a Poynting jet gives rise to localized dissipation in the jet which may explain the enhanced synchrotron radiation in the knots of the 3C 303 jet, and also in the apparently stationary knot HST-1 in the jet near the nucleus of the nearby galaxy M87. For a relativistic Poynting jet on parsec scales, the reflected voltage wave from an inductive termination or load can lead to a backward propagating wave which breaks down the magnetic insulation of the jet giving $|{\bf E}| /|{\bf B}|\geq 1$. At the threshold for breakdown, $|{\bf E}|/|{\bf B}|=1$, positive and negative particles are directly accelerated in the ${\bf E \times B}$ direction which is approximately along the jet axis. Acceleration can occur up to Lorentz factors $\sim 10^7$. This particle acceleration mechanism is distinct from that in shock waves and that in magnetic field reconnection.

Ionospheric Response to Solar Wind Pressure Pulses Under Northward IMF Conditions

Enhancements of aurora and auroral electrojets in response to sudden compression of the magnetosphere by shocks/ pressure pulses are well known and have been attributed by some to compression-enhanced magnetic field reconnection. To examine such a view, we analyze a fortuitous event that is comprised of a series of pressure pulses (< 20 min) on November 8, 2000. These pressure pulses were preceded by a large, northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) that lasted more than 15 hours such that effects from reconnection can be minimized. Auroral images acquired by ultraviolet imager on board the Polar satellite clearly show intensifications of the aurora that occurred first near local noon and progressively extended from dayside to nightside. The area-integrated global auroral power reached ~30 gigawatts (GW). It is also found that the global auroral power is well correlated with the solar wind dynamic pressure (correlation coefficient r ~0.90), rather than the change in the solar wind dynamic pressure. In-situ measurements of particle data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellite indicate that the magnetospheric source for the pressure-enhanced auroras is most likely the central plasma sheet. Other ionospheric parameters such as the auroral electrojet (AE index), magnetic storm index (Sym-H), and the cross polarcap potential drop also show a one-to-one correspondence to the pressure pulses. In one instance the auroral electrojets AE index reached more than 200 nT, the cross polar-cap potential drop (φpc) inferred from the SuperDARN radar network ionospheric plasma convection increased to ~60 kV. The observed increases in the auroral emissions, AE, and polar cap potential were not associated with substorms. Our result strongly suggests that solar wind pressure pulses are an important source of geomagnetic activity during northward IMF periods.

Sir William Ian Axford. 2 January 1933 — 13 March 2010

William Ian Axford was born and educated in New Zealand, receiving his ME and MSc degrees from Canterbury College of the University of New Zealand in 1956. He completed his PhD at Manchester University in 1960 and spent the following year at Cambridge University before moving to the Defence Research Board of Canada. From 1963 to 1974 he held professorships at Cornell University and the University of California at San Diego. From 1974 to 2001 he directed the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy in Germany, with two three-year periods of leave in New Zealand in 1982–85 and 1992–95. Ian Axford was one of the greatest plasma physicists of the space age. He made fundamental contributions to a wide range of topics in the fields of space physics and astrophysics, including the dynamics of the Earth’s magnetosphere, the magnetic field reconnection process, the Sun’s atmosphere and the formation and evolution of the solar wind, the interaction of the solar wind with the interstellar medium and with comets, cosmic ray propagation and modulation in the Solar System, the acceleration of cosmic rays in supernova shocks, and the use of robotic spacecraft in the exploration of the Solar System. Ian was also a remarkable science administrator, completely restructuring the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy and transforming it into one of the world’s leading space and atmospheric research institutes. He was a great advocate of international collaboration in science, and reinvigorated several flagging institutions such as the European Geophysical Society and the International Council of Scientific Unions Committee on Space Research.

Characterization of single and colliding laser-produced plasma bubbles using Thomson scattering and proton radiography

Time-resolved measurements of electron and ion temperatures using Thomson scattering have been combined with proton radiography data for comprehensive characterization of individual laser-produced plasma bubbles or the interaction of bubble pairs, where reconnection of azimuthal magnetic fields occurs. Measurements of ion and electron temperatures agree with lasnex simulations of single plasma bubbles, which include the physics of magnetic fields. There is negligible difference in temperatures between a single plasma bubble and the interaction region of bubble pairs, although the ion temperature may be slightly higher due to the collision of expanding plasmas. These results are consistent with reconnection in a β∼8 plasma, where the release of magnetic energy (<5% of the electron thermal energy) does not appreciably affect the hydrodynamics.

Ion and electron heating characteristics of magnetic reconnection in tokamak plasma merging experiments

Recently, the TS-3 and TS-4 tokamak merging experiments revealed significant plasma heating during magnetic reconnection. A key question is how and where ions and electrons are heated during magnetic reconnection. Two-dimensional measurements of ion and electron temperatures and plasma flow made clear that electrons are heated inside the current sheet mainly by the Ohmic heating and ions are heated in the downstream areas mainly by the reconnection outflows. The outflow kinetic energy is thermalized by the fast shock formation and viscous damping. The magnetic reconnection converts the reconnecting magnetic field energy mostly to the ion thermal energy in the outflow region whose size is much larger than the current sheet size for electron heating. The ion heating energy is proportional to the square of the reconnection magnetic field component . This scaling of reconnection heating indicates the significant ion heating effect of magnetic reconnection, which leads to a new high-field reconnection heating experiment for fusion plasmas.

Test of Shi et al. method to infer the magnetic reconnection geometry from spacecraft data: MHD simulation with guide field and antiparallel kinetic simulation

When analyzing data from an array of spacecraft (such as Cluster or MMS) crossing a site of magnetic reconnection, it is desirable to be able to accurately determine the orientation of the reconnection site. If the reconnection is quasi‐two dimensional, there are three key directions, the direction of maximum inhomogeneity (the direction across the reconnection site), the direction of the reconnecting component of the magnetic field, and the direction of rough invariance (the “out of plane” direction). Using simulated spacecraft observations of magnetic reconnection in the geomagnetic tail, we extend our previous tests of the direction‐finding method developed by Shi et al. (2005) and the method to determine the structure velocity relative to the spacecraft Vstr. These methods require data from four proximate spacecraft. We add artificial noise and calibration errors to the simulation fields, and then use the perturbed gradient of the magnetic field B and perturbed time derivative dB/dt, as described by Denton et al. (2010). Three new simulations are examined: a weakly three‐dimensional, i.e., quasi‐two‐dimensional, MHD simulation without a guide field, a quasi‐two‐dimensional MHD simulation with a guide field, and a two‐dimensional full dynamics kinetic simulation with inherent noise so that the apparent minimum gradient was not exactly zero, even without added artificial errors. We also examined variations of the spacecraft trajectory for the kinetic simulation. The accuracy of the directions found varied depending on the simulation and spacecraft trajectory, but all the directions could be found within about 10° for all cases. Various aspects of the method were examined, including how to choose averaging intervals and the best intervals for determining the directions and velocity. For the kinetic simulation, we also investigated in detail how the errors in the inferred gradient directions from the unmodified Shi et al. method (using the unperturbed gradient) depended on the amplitude of the calibration errors. For an accuracy of 3° for the maximum gradient direction, the calibration errors could be as large as 3% of reconnection magnetic field, while for the same accuracy for the minimum gradient direction, the calibration errors could only be as large as 0.03% of the reconnection magnetic field. These results suggest that the maximum gradient direction can normally be determined by the unmodified Shi et al. method, while the modified method or some other method must be used to accurately determine the minimum gradient direction. The structure velocity was found with magnitude accurate to 2% and direction accurate to within 5%.

A LABORATORY EXPERIMENT OF MAGNETIC RECONNECTION: OUTFLOWS, HEATING, AND WAVES IN CHROMOSPHERIC JETS

Hinode observations have revealed intermittent recurrent plasma ejections/jets in the chromosphere. These are interpreted as a result of non-perfectly anti-parallel magnetic reconnection, i.e. component reconnection, between a twisted magnetic flux tube and the pre-existing coronal/chromospheric magnetic field, though the fundamental physics of component reconnection is unrevealed. In this paper, we experimentally reproduced the magnetic configuration and investigated the dynamics of plasma ejections, heating and wave generation triggered by component reconnection in the chromosphere. We set plasma parameters as in the chromosphere (density 10^14 cm^-3, temperature 5-10 eV, i.e. (5-10)x10^4 K, and reconnection magnetic field 200 G) using argon plasma. Our experiment shows bi-directional outflows with the speed of 5 km/s at maximum, ion heating in the downstream area over 30 eV and magnetic fluctuations mainly at 5-10 us period. We succeeded in qualitatively reproducing chromospheric jets, but quantitatively we still have some differences between observations and experiments such as jet velocity, total energy and wave frequency. Some of them can be explained by the scale gap between solar and laboratory plasma, while the others probably by the difference of microscopy and macroscopy, collisionality and the degree of ionization, which have not been achieved in our experiment.

SOLAR CORONAL LOOPS RESOLVED BY HINODE AND THE SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY

Despite decades of studying the Sun, the coronal heating problem remains unsolved. One fundamental issue is that we do not know the spatial scale of the coronal heating mechanism. At a spatial resolution of 1000 km or more, it is likely that most observations represent superpositions of multiple unresolved structures. In this Letter, we use a combination of spectroscopic data from the Hinode EUV Imaging Spectrometer and high-resolution images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on the Solar Dynamics Observatory to determine the spatial scales of coronal loops. We use density measurements to construct multi-thread models of the observed loops and confirm these models using the higher spatial resolution imaging data. The results allow us to set constraints on the number of threads needed to reproduce a particular loop structure. We demonstrate that in several cases million degree loops are revealed to be single monolithic structures that are fully spatially resolved by current instruments. The majority of loops, however, must be composed of a number of finer, unresolved threads, but the models suggest that even for these loops the number of threads could be small, implying that they are also close to being resolved. These results challenge heating models of loops based on the reconnection of braided magnetic fields in the corona.

Plasmoid Ejection and Secondary Current Sheet Generation from Magnetic Reconnection in Laser-Plasma Interaction

Reconnection of the self-generated magnetic fields in laser-plasma interaction was first investigated experimentally by Nilson et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 255001 (2006)] by shining two laser pulses a distance apart on a solid target layer. An elongated current sheet (CS) was observed in the plasma between the two laser spots. In order to more closely model magnetotail reconnection, here two side-by-side thin target layers, instead of a single one, are used. It is found that at one end of the elongated CS a fanlike electron outflow region including three well-collimated electron jets appears. The (>1 MeV) tail of the jet energy distribution exhibits a power-law scaling. The enhanced electron acceleration is attributed to the intense inductive electric field in the narrow electron dominated reconnection region, as well as additional acceleration as they are trapped inside the rapidly moving plasmoid formed in and ejected from the CS. The ejection also induces a secondary CS.

Fragmentation during merging of plasmoids in the magnetic field reconnection

Context. Application of the magnetic-reconnection theory onto large-scale events, such as solar flares, requires formation of very thin (kinetic-scale) current sheets within the rather thick flare current layer. Hence, some fragmentation/filamentation mechanisms has to be in action.Aims. We aim at identifying fragmentation mechanisms for magnetic field and current density structures. Namely, we focus at detailed study of the processes during the merging of plasmoids that had been formed in the current layer.Methods. A 2.5-D electromagnetic particle-in-cell model is used and its results analysed. Results. It is shown that the merging process of plasmoids is not a simple process as presented in some previous studies. On the contrary, this process leads to a complex fragmentation. We found two types of fragmentation processes: a) fragmentation in the current sheet generated between the merging plasmoids and b) fragmentation at the boundary of plasma outflow from the reconnection between these plasmoids. While the first type of fragmentation is generated by the tearing-mode (plasmoid) instability of the secondary current sheet, the second one looks to be connected with an increase of the plasma β parameter during these processes. Thus, sheared high-β plasma flows produce this additional fragmentation. Conclusions. The fragmentation and energy transport from large to small scales in a large-scale magnetic reconnection seem to be the result of interplay and positive feedback between instabilities driven by high gradients in both magnetic (intense current density) and velocity (high vorticity) fields.

Granular-Scale Elementary Flux Emergence Episodes in a Solar Active Region

We analyse data from Hinode spacecraft taken over two 54-minute periods during the emergence of AR 11024. We focus on small-scale portions within the observed solar active region and discover the appearance of very distinctive small-scale and short-lived dark features in Ca ii H chromospheric filtergrams and Stokes I images. The features appear in regions with close-to-zero longitudinal magnetic field, and are observed to increase in length before they eventually disappear. Energy release in the low chromospheric line is detected while the dark features are fading. Three complete series of these events are detected with remarkably similar properties, i.e. lifetime of ≈ 12 min, maximum length and area of 2 – 4 Mm and 1.6 – 4 Mm2, respectively, and all with associated brightenings. In time series of magnetograms a diverging bipolar configuration is observed accompanying the appearance of the dark features and the brightenings. The observed phenomena are explained as evidencing elementary flux emergence in the solar atmosphere, i.e. small-scale arch filament systems rising up from the photosphere to the lower chromosphere with a length scale of a few solar granules. Brightenings are explained as being the signatures of chromospheric heating triggered by reconnection of the rising loops (once they have reached chromospheric heights) with pre-existing magnetic fields, as well as being due to reconnection/cancellation events in U-loop segments of emerging serpentine fields. The characteristic length scale, area and lifetime of these elementary flux emergence events agree well with those of the serpentine field observed in emerging active regions. We study the temporal evolution and dynamics of the events and compare them with the emergence of magnetic loops detected in quiet Sun regions and serpentine flux emergence signatures in active regions. The physical processes of the emergence of granular-scale magnetic loops seem to be the same in the quiet Sun and active regions. The difference is the reduced chromospheric emission in the quiet Sun attributed to the fact that loops are emerging in a region of lower ambient magnetic field density, making interactions and reconnection less likely to occur. Incorporating the novel features of granular-scale flux emergence presented in this study, we advance the scenario for serpentine flux emergence.

Kelvin‐Helmholtz stability of reconnection exhausts in the solar wind

Three solar wind reconnection exhaust events observed by the Wind satellite are compared to the analytical solution of the Riemannian decay of a current sheet due to reconnection of skewed magnetic fields. This process leads to high speed flows inside an exhaust region which is bounded not only by Alfvénic and slow mode waves but also, to a large extent, by tangential discontinuities (TDs). The TD portions of the exhaust boundary expand with distance from the X‐line and therefore a long exhaust does not necessarily imply a long X‐line. In some cases, portions of the exhaust show oscillations which might be connected to a Kelvin‐Helmholtz instability in agreement with analytical estimates.

Twinkling pulsar wind nebulae in the synchrotron cut-off regime and the γ-ray flares in the Crab Nebula

ABSTRACT Synchrotron radiation of ultrarelativistic particles accelerated in a pulsar wind nebula may dominate its spectrum up to γ-ray energies. Because of the short cooling time of the γ-ray-emitting electrons and positrons, the γ-ray-emission zone is in the immediate vicinity of the acceleration site. Particle acceleration likely occurs at the termination shock of a relativistic striped wind, where multiple forced magnetic field reconnections provide strong magnetic fluctuations facilitating Fermi acceleration processes. The acceleration mechanisms imply the presence of stochastic magnetic fields in the particle acceleration region, which cause stochastic variability of the synchrotron emission. This variability is particularly strong in the steep γ-ray tail of the spectrum, where modest fluctuations of the magnetic field lead to strong flares of spectral flux. In particular, stochastic variations of magnetic field, which may lead to quasi-cyclic γ-ray flares, can be produced by the relativistic cyclotron ion instability at the termination shock. Our model calculations of the spectral and temporal evolution of synchrotron emission in the spectral cut-off regime demonstrate that the intermittent magnetic field concentrations dominate the γ-ray emission from highest energy electrons and provide fast, strong variability even for a quasi-steady distribution of radiating particles. The simulated light curves and spectra can explain the very strong γ-ray flares observed in the Crab Nebula and lack of strong variations at other wavelengths. The model predicts high polarization in the flare phase, which can be tested with future polarimetry observations.

Magnetospheric multiscale (MMS) mission attitude ground system design

This paper describes the attitude ground system (AGS) design to be used for support of the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission. The AGS exists as one component of the mission operations control center. It has responsibility for validating the onboard attitude and accelerometer bias estimates, calibrating the attitude sensors and the spacecraft inertia tensor, and generating a definitive attitude history for use by the science teams. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland is responsible for developing the MMS spacecraft, for the overall management of the MMS mission, and for mission operations. MMS is scheduled for launch in 2014 for a planned two-year mission. The MMS mission consists of four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation in an eccentric Earth orbit. The relatively tight formation, ranging from 10 to 400 km, will provide coordinated observations giving insight into small-scale magnetic field reconnection processes. By varying the size of the tetrahedron and the orbital semi-major axis and eccentricity, and making use of the changing solar phase, this geometry allows for the study of both bow shock and magnetotail plasma physics, including acceleration, reconnection, and turbulence. The mission divides into two phases for science; these phases will have orbit dimensions of 1.2 x 12 Earth radii in the first phase and 1.2x25 Earth radii in the second in order to study the dayside magnetopause and the nightside magnetotail, respectively. The orbital periods are roughly one day and three days for the two mission phases. Each of the four MMS spacecraft will be spin stabilized at 3 revolutions per minute (rpm), with the spin axis oriented near the ecliptic north pole but tipped approximately 2.5 deg towards the Sun line. The main body of each spacecraft will be an eight-sided platform with diameter of 3.4 m and height of 1.2 m. Several booms are attached to this central core: two axial booms of 14.9 m length, two radial magnetometer booms of 5 m length, and four radial wire booms of 60 m length. Attitude and orbit control will use a set of axial and radial thrusters. A four-head star tracker and a slit-type digital Sun sensor (DSS) provide input for attitude determination. In addition, an accelerometer will be used for closed-loop orbit maneuver control. The primary AGS product will be a daily definitive attitude history. Due to power limitations, the star tracker and accelerometer data will not be available at all times. However, tracker data from at least 10 percent of each orbit and continuous DSS data will be provided. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) will be used to estimate the three-axis attitude (i.e., spin axis orientation and spin phase) and rotation rate for all times when the tracker data is valid. For other times, the attitude is generated by assuming a constant angular momentum vector in the inertial frame. The DSS sun pulse will provide a timing signal to maintain an accurate spin phase. There will be times when the Sun is occulted and DSS data is not available. If this occurs at the start or end of a definitive attitude product, then the spin phase will be extrapolated using the mean rate determined by the EKF.

Merging for Particle-Mesh Complex Particle Kinetic modeling of the multiple plasma beams

We suggest a merging procedure for the Particle-Mesh Complex Particle Kinetic (PMCPK) method in case of inter-penetrating flow (multiple plasma beams). We examine the standard particle-in-cell (PIC) and the PMCPK methods in the case of particle acceleration by shock surfing for a wide range of the control numerical parameters. The plasma dynamics is described by a hybrid (particle-ion–fluid-electron) model. Note that one may need a mesh if modeling with the computation of an electromagnetic field. Our calculations use specified, time-independent electromagnetic fields for the shock, rather than self-consistently generated fields. While a particle-mesh method is a well-verified approach, the CPK method seems to be a good approach for multiscale modeling that includes multiple regions with various particle/fluid plasma behavior. However, the CPK method is still in need of a verification for studying the basic plasma phenomena: particle heating and acceleration by collisionless shocks, magnetic field reconnection, beam dynamics, etc.

Satellite observations of plasma physics near the magnetic field reconnection X line

[1] Satellite observations near the X line are required to understand electromagnetic energy conversion and particle acceleration resulting from magnetic field reconnection. More than 900 orbits of Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) spacecraft across the low-latitude dayside magnetopause, involving more than 4000 magnetopause crossings and 5000 h of data, were searched for examples of magnetic field reconnection within a few electron skin depths of the X line. Evidence that the X line was crossed in the best of these events comes from observations of DC electric and magnetic fields, electrostatic and electromagnetic lower hybrid waves, magnetosheath electrons flowing along the separatricies, and a super-Alfvenic electron jet flowing perpendicular to the magnetic field. A dispersion analysis identifies properties of the wave that are in agreement with the experiment. Neither these waves nor the DC electric field were sufficient to account for acceleration of the electron jet. The anomalous drag was not an important source of the observed DC electric field. The observed pressure gradient is a possible candidate for maintaining the electric field.

ENA diagnostics of auroral activity at Mars

One prominent feature of solar wind—Mars interaction has to do with the presence of strong crustal magnetic fields, especially, in the southern hemisphere. This physical property has set Mars apart from Venus as far as the kinetic effect in detail. In this paper, we review briefly the recent particles-and-fields measurements at Mars in connection to the auroral activity driven by magnetic field reconnection between the crustal magnetic fields and the interplanetary fields. It is suggested that the subsolar ENA (energetic neutral atoms) jets discovered by the NPD instrument of Mars Express could be resulting from charge exchange effect of the shocked solar wind protons at the magnetopause-like regions of the Martian mini-magnetospheres and at the cusp regions of the crustal magnetic fields. It also means that ENA and LENA (low energy neutral atom) detectors could be important experiments for diagnostics of the auroral process unique to Mars, which might contribute to the overall atmospheric loss budget.

Wave associated anomalous drag during magnetic field reconnection

The anomalous drag, D, due to large amplitude plasma waves is used for the first time, in place of η*j, to estimate dissipation at the sub-solar magnetopause and to determine the extent to which this drag accounts for the reconnection electric field. This anomalous drag is determined by measuring correlations of the fluctuations in the electric field and plasma density. Large amplitude electric fields occurred more than 60% of the time in the more than 100 sub-solar, low latitude magnetopause crossings of the THEMIS satellite. They occurred mainly near the magnetospheric separatrix in the form of electrostatic lower hybrid and whistler waves. The anomalous drag at the separatrix was generally &amp;lt;10% of the average reconnection electric field, and it was &amp;lt;1% of the field in the current sheet. Thus, anomalous drag due to waves is not a significant driver of reconnection or of the required dissipation at the sub-solar magnetopause.

A generalized flux function for three-dimensional magnetic reconnection

The definition and measurement of magnetic reconnection in three-dimensional magnetic fields with multiple reconnection sites is a challenging problem, particularly in fields lacking null points. We propose a generalization of the familiar two-dimensional concept of a magnetic flux function to the case of a three-dimensional field connecting two planar boundaries. In this initial analysis, we require the normal magnetic field to have the same distribution on both boundaries. Using hyperbolic fixed points of the field line mapping, and their global stable and unstable manifolds, we define a unique flux partition of the magnetic field. This partition is more complicated than the corresponding (well-known) construction in a two-dimensional field, owing to the possibility of heteroclinic points and chaotic magnetic regions. Nevertheless, we show how the partition reconnection rate is readily measured with the generalized flux function. We relate our partition reconnection rate to the common definition of three-dimensional reconnection in terms of integrated parallel electric field. An analytical example demonstrates the theory and shows how the flux partition responds to an isolated reconnection event.