CAREER: Understanding Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection as a Fundamental Heliospheric Process

磁场重联是贯穿日球层的基本等离子体过程。重联能有效地将磁能转化为粒子能量，并可能在碰撞不频繁的系统中（如日冕、湍流太阳风和地球磁层）的能量耗散中发挥关键作用。正因为如此，磁重联的详细动力学描述是必要的了解基本的日光层过程，包括太阳耀斑，湍流耗散，太阳风磁层相互作用。这个CAREER项目旨在了解无碰撞物理学如何修改磁重联的过程。教育部分包括指导学生的研究（高中到研究生），公共宣传，并在夏威夷的本科生的高性能计算研讨会的发展。这项研究旨在了解无碰撞物理如何修改磁重联的过程，以及这是如何体现在日光层。该研究解决了以下三个关键科学目标（SO）：SO#1：确定速度剪切如何改变无碰撞磁场重联。理解增加的剪切速度如何改变重联特性（即，重联率，流出速度，和加热相关）的动力学限制。SO#2：了解在反平行场和引导场配置中，流入离子和电子温度增加在磁场重联中的作用。SO#3：确定高能非热电子对重联过程的影响。重连可能是非热电子的有效来源，其可以对重连系统进行反馈。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma process that occurs throughout the heliosphere. Reconnection efficiently converts magnetic energy into particle energy and likely plays a critical role in dissipating energy in systems where collisions are infrequent, such as the solar corona, turbulent solar wind, and Earth’s magnetosphere. Because of this, a detailed kinetic description of magnetic reconnection is necessary for understanding fundamental heliospheric processes, including solar flares, turbulence dissipation, and solar wind-magnetospheric interaction. This CAREER project seeks to understand how collisionless physics modifies the process of magnetic reconnection. The education component includes mentoring student research (high school through graduate students), public outreach, and the development of a High-Performance Computing workshop for undergraduate students in Hawai’i.This research seeks to understand how collisionless physics modifies the process of magnetic reconnection and how this manifests in the heliosphere. The research addresses the following three key Science Objectives (SO): SO#1: Determine how a velocity shear alters collisionless magnetic reconnection. Understand how an increasing shear velocity modifies the reconnection characteristic (i.e., reconnection rate, outflow velocity, and heating relate) in the kinetic limit. SO#2: Understand the role of increased inflowing ion and electron temperature in magnetic reconnection in anti-parallel and guide field configurations. SO#3: Identify the effects of energetic, non-thermal electrons on the reconnection process. Reconnection is likely an efficient source of non-thermal electrons, which may feedback on the reconnecting system. These objectives will be achieved with a combination of theory, kinetic modeling, and observations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.