SH54A-07
The Coupling of Ion and Electron Heating During Magnetic Reconnection and the Role of Parallel Electric Fields
Friday, 18 December 2015: 17:30
2011 (Moscone West)
Colby C Haggerty, University of Delaware, Physics and Astronomy, Newark, DE, United States, Michael A Shay, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, United States, James Frederick Drake, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, United States and Tai Phan, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
Abstract:
The energization of ions and electrons due to magnetic reconnection plays an important role in the heating and dynamics of plasma throughout the heliosphere. However there are still gaps in the understanding of the relationship between ion and electron heating. The mechanisms for ion and electron heating are examined using a systematic set of antiparallel reconnection simulations performed with Kinetic Particle in Cell (PIC). Ions and electrons are energized and heated through reflections across contracting magnetic field lines in the center of the outflow exhaust. Long range parallel electric fields form to trap heated electrons, and in turn inhibit the counter streaming ion beams, reducing the ion temperature increment. A balance between electron energy gain from the contracting field lines and energy loss at the inflow edge of the exhaust ultimately determines the electron heating. This mechanism extends far downstream and leads to a net heating which is independent of distance from the x-line. The parallel electric field fundamentally links energy partition between the electrons and ions.
