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

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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.