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arxiv: 1410.3178 · v1 · pith:YCMQX5JVnew · submitted 2014-10-13 · 🌌 astro-ph.HE · physics.plasm-ph

Scaling of magnetic reconnection in relativistic collisionless plasmas

classification 🌌 astro-ph.HE physics.plasm-ph
keywords reconnectionscalingspeedcollisionlessdiffusioninflowmagneticnon-relativistic
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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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