Formation of discontinuities and expansion waves in the outflow region of magnetic reconnection in an asymmetric current sheet

Abstract:

The current sheets observed in the solar wind, magnetopause, and nightside plasma sheet can be asymmetric, in which the plasma densities and/or magnetic field magnitudes on the two sides of the current sheet are not equal. A hybrid code is used to simulate the 1-D Riemann problem for the generation and evolution of MHD discontinuities and expansion waves in the outflow region of magnetic reconnection in an asymmetric current sheet. In a symmetric current sheet, four types of compound structures are found: (a) RD-SS compound structure: show shock (SS) is attached to the downstream of rotational discontinuity (RD), (b) SS-RD: SS is followed by an adjacent RD, (c) SS-RD-SS: RD is trapped inside SS, and (d) switch-off slow shock (SSS). In the asymmetric current sheet, the rotational angle of magnetic field across an RD on the side with a higher plasma density is usually larger than that with a lower plasma density. In the asymmetric cases, a pure RD, a single SS, or a pure slow expansion wave (SE) may appear. When the asymmetry is further increased, RD may become absent in the low density side. For a highly asymmetric current sheet, a slow expansion wave (SE) is formed behind the SS-RD compound structure on the side with a very high plasma density.