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Full particle-in-cell simulations of kinetic equilibria and the role of the initial current sheet on steady asymmetric magnetic reconnection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2016

J. Dargent ,
N. Aunai ,
G. Belmont ,
N. Dorville ,
B. Lavraud  and
M. Hesse
J. Dargent*
Affiliation:
LPP, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, UPMC, Université Paris Sud, 91128 Palaiseau, France Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, 31400 Toulouse, France Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Toulouse, France
N. Aunai
Affiliation:
LPP, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, UPMC, Université Paris Sud, 91128 Palaiseau, France
G. Belmont
Affiliation:
LPP, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, UPMC, Université Paris Sud, 91128 Palaiseau, France
N. Dorville
Affiliation:
LPP, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, UPMC, Université Paris Sud, 91128 Palaiseau, France
B. Lavraud
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, 31400 Toulouse, France Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Toulouse, France
M. Hesse
Affiliation:
Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: jeremy.dargent@lpp.polytechnique.fr
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Abstract

Tangential current sheets are ubiquitous in space plasmas and yet hard to describe with a kinetic equilibrium. In this paper, we use a semi-analytical model, the BAS model, which provides a steady ion distribution function for a tangential asymmetric current sheet and we prove that an ion kinetic equilibrium produced by this model remains steady in a fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulation even if the electron distribution function does not satisfy the time independent Vlasov equation. We then apply this equilibrium to look at the dependence of magnetic reconnection simulations on their initial conditions. We show that, as the current sheet evolves from a symmetric to an asymmetric upstream plasma, the reconnection rate is impacted and the X line and the electron flow stagnation point separate from one another and start to drift. For the simulated systems, we investigate the overall evolution of the reconnection process via the classical signatures discussed in the literature and searched in the Magnetospheric MultiScale data. We show that they seem robust and do not depend on the specific details of the internal structure of the initial current sheet.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 82 , Issue 3 , June 2016 , 905820305
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2016 

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