CAREER: Understanding Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection as a Fundamental Heliospheric Process

磁重联是日光层中发生的一种基本的等离子体过程。重联能有效地将磁能转化为粒子能量，在碰撞不频繁的系统中，如太阳日冕、湍急的太阳风和地球磁层，重联可能在消耗能量方面发挥关键作用。因此，为了理解日球层的基本过程，包括太阳耀斑、湍流耗散和太阳风-磁层相互作用，有必要对磁场重联进行详细的动力学描述。这个职业项目试图了解无碰撞物理如何改变磁重联的过程。教育部分包括指导学生研究(从高中到研究生)，公共宣传，以及在夏威夷为本科生开发高性能计算研讨会。这项研究试图了解无碰撞物理如何改变磁场重联的过程，以及这如何在日光层中表现出来。这项研究涉及以下三个关键的科学目标(SO)：SO#1：确定速度切变如何改变无碰撞的磁重联。了解增加的剪切速度如何改变运动极限中的重联特性(即重联速率、流出速度和加热关系)。因此#2：理解在反平行和引导场配置中增加的流入离子和电子温度在磁重联中的作用。因此#3：确定高能、非热电子对重新连接过程的影响。重新连接可能是非热电子的有效来源，它可能会对重新连接系统进行反馈。这些目标将通过理论、动力学建模和观察相结合来实现。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.