Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Characterizing Electrons In Primary And Secondary Magnetic Islands During Magnetic Reconnection, Jason Shuster

Honors Theses and Capstones

The physics underlying particle-in-cell simulations that are widely employed in studying plasma dynamics are reviewed. Results from a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation of fully kinetic, undriven, collisionless magnetic reconnection are studied to compare the electrons in a primary magnetic island formed from an ion current sheet and the electrons in a secondary island formed in an electron current layer. We find that the secondary island is born with a strong out-of-plane current density due to localized peaks in the electron density and out-of-plane electron velocity; the secondary island retains these features as it evolves, distinguishing it from the primary island. For …