Kinetic simulations of magnetic reconnection: from collisionless to collisional regimes
ORAL
Abstract
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma process that plays an important role in the evolution of magnetized plasmas in space physics, astrophysics, and the laboratory. The dynamics of magnetic reconnection are controlled by the dissipation region. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations with binary Monte Carlo Coulomb collisions allow the study of the interplay between collisional and kinetic effects during magnetic reconnection from first principles. We present the results of PIC simulations of magnetic reconnection for a large parameter scan over system size and collisionality. We will discuss how these parameters control the reconnection rate, particle acceleration, and formation of plasmoids from the collisionless to MHD regimes. The results will then be connected to recent experiments studying magnetic reconnection in laboratory high-energy-density plasmas.
*This work was supported by the DOE SLAC Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515 and by the DOE Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences under FWP 100237. S.T. was supported by the DoD NDSEG fellowship and the NCSA Blue Waters Graduate Fellowship. F.F. acknowledges the support of the U.S. DOE Early Career Research Program. This work was also supported by the SLAC LDRD program and the NSF Grant (PICKSC), AC11339893.
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Presenters
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Samuel R Totorica
- Stanford University