Centrifugal and gravitational forces both raise magnetic reconnection rates near Kerr black holes, with gravity separating charges and centrifugal force shortening the current sheet via curved geometry seen by a comoving observer.
Scaling of magnetic reconnection in relativistic collisionless plasmas
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abstract
Using fully kinetic simulations, we study the scaling of the inflow speed of collisionless magnetic reconnection from the non-relativistic to ultra-relativistic limit. In the anti-parallel configuration, the inflow speed increases with the upstream magnetization parameter $\sigma$ and approaches the light speed when $\sigma > O(100)$, leading to an enhanced reconnection rate. In all regimes, the divergence of pressure tensor is the dominant term responsible for breaking the frozen-in condition at the x-line. The observed scaling agrees well with a simple model that accounts for the Lorentz contraction of the plasma passing through the diffusion region. The results demonstrate that the aspect ratio of the diffusion region remains $\sim 0.1$ in both the non-relativistic and relativistic limits.
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Magnetic reconnection under centrifugal and gravitational electromotive forces
Centrifugal and gravitational forces both raise magnetic reconnection rates near Kerr black holes, with gravity separating charges and centrifugal force shortening the current sheet via curved geometry seen by a comoving observer.