Modeling Collisionless Reconnection Onset and Thin Current Sheets in Earth's Magnetotail and Laboratory Plasmas

这个项目将研究等离子体中无碰撞磁场重联的发生和演化。 它将利用各种技术，包括有限元稳定性分析、粒子模拟和新的薄电流片自洽动力学模型。 1-D有限元分析将扩展到2-D的情况下，并将被用来定位的位置，在等离子体系统，是现实的代表地球的磁尾的初始X线。 X线重联起始的研究将集中在瞬态电子所起的作用。 另一种形式的重连，与Y线拓扑结构，成为可能，由于在薄电流片的电流密度的集中。 在这些情况下，电流不稳定性驱动重联的发生，并且通过异常电阻率促进重联。 这些研究将与磁层亚暴问题直接相关，但其基础的基本等离子体物理学将使研究结果适用于从实验室实验到致密物体（中子星、黑洞）的磁层等天体物理现象等更广泛的等离子体现象。 该项目将涉及一名研究生。

This project will examine the onset and evolution of collisionless magnetic reconnection in plasmas. It will utilize a variety of techniques, including a finite-element stability analysis, particle simulations and new classes of self-consistent kinetic models of thin current sheets. The 1-D finite-element analysis will be extended to 2-D cases and will be used to locate the position of the initial X-line in plasma systems that are realistically representative of the earth's magnetotail. The studies of X-line reconnection onset will focus on the role played by transient electrons. Another form of reconnection, with the Y-line topology, becomes possible due to concentration of the current density in thin current sheets. In these cases, the onset of reconnection is driven by current instabilities and the reconnection is promoted via anomalous resistivity. These studies will be directly relevant to the problem of magnetospheric substorms, but the underlying basic plasma physics will make the results applicable to a broader range of plasma phenomena from laboratory experiments to astrophysical phenomena such as the magnetospheres of compact objects (neutron stars, black holes). The project will involve a graduate student.