Author:

Keywords:

collisionless tearing instability, anisotropic neutral sheet, bifurcated current sheet, nonlinear evolution, low-frequency, pressure anisotropy, plasma simulation, field, onset, dissipation, Science & Technology, Physical Sciences, Physics, Fluids & Plasmas, Physics, COLLISIONLESS TEARING INSTABILITY, ANISOTROPIC NEUTRAL SHEET, BIFURCATED CURRENT SHEET, NONLINEAR EVOLUTION, LOW-FREQUENCY, PRESSURE ANISOTROPY, PLASMA SIMULATION, FIELD, ONSET, DISSIPATION, 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences, 0202 Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics, 0203 Classical Physics, Fluids & Plasmas, 5106 Nuclear and plasma physics, 5109 Space sciences

Abstract:

Kinetic simulation results reveal that the growth of the lower-hybrid drift instability (LHDI) in current sheets has an important effect on the onset and nonlinear development of magnetic reconnection. The LHDI does this by heating electrons anisotropically, by increasing the peak current density, by producing current bifurcation, and by causing ion velocity shear. The role of these in magnetic reconnection is explained. Confidence in the results is strongly enhanced by agreement between implicit and massively-parallel-explicit particle-in-cell simulations. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.