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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Nonadiabatic Heating In Magnetic Reconnection, Xuanye Ma, Antonius Otto
Nonadiabatic Heating In Magnetic Reconnection, Xuanye Ma, Antonius Otto
Publications
Plasma transport process as a fundamental problem in magnetospheric physics is often associated with strong nonadiabatic heating. At the magnetopause, observations show an increase of specific entropy (i.e., S = p/ργ) by 2 orders of magnitude from the magnetosheath into the magnetosphere. In the near‐Earth magnetotail, particle injection requires strongly entropy depleted plasma bubbles, and their evolution can be strongly modified in the presence of nonadiabatic heating. In this study, one of the critical plasma transport mechanisms, magnetic reconnection, is investigated as a nonadiabatic process in the framework of MHD. It is important to examine whether magnetic reconnection can provide …
Interaction Of Magnetic Reconnection And Kelvin-Helmholtz Modes For Large Magnetic Shear: 1. Kelvin-Helmholtz Trigger, Xuanye Ma, Antonius Otto, Peter A. Delamere
Interaction Of Magnetic Reconnection And Kelvin-Helmholtz Modes For Large Magnetic Shear: 1. Kelvin-Helmholtz Trigger, Xuanye Ma, Antonius Otto, Peter A. Delamere
Publications
At the Earth's magnetopause, both magnetic reconnection and the Kelvin‐Helmholtz (KH) instability can operate simultaneously for southward interplanetary magnetic field conditions. The dynamic evolution of such a system can be expected to depend on the importance of KH wave evolution versus reconnection and therefore on the respective initial perturbations. In this study, a series of local three‐dimensional MHD and Hall MHD simulations are carried out to investigate the situation where the Kelvin‐Helmholtz instability is initially the primary process. It is demonstrated that magnetic reconnection is driven and strongly modified by nonlinear KH waves. The highest reconnection rate is close to …
Interaction Of Magnetic Reconnection And Kelvin-Helmholtz Modes For Large Magnetic Shear: 2. Reconnection Trigger, Xuanye Ma, Antonius Otto, Peter A. Delamere
Interaction Of Magnetic Reconnection And Kelvin-Helmholtz Modes For Large Magnetic Shear: 2. Reconnection Trigger, Xuanye Ma, Antonius Otto, Peter A. Delamere
Publications
A typical property of magnetopause reconnection is a significant perpendicular shear flow due to the fast streaming magnetosheath plasma. Therefore, the magnetopause represents a large magnetic and flow shear boundary during periods of southward interplanetary magnetic field, which can be unstable to Kelvin‐Helmholtz (KH) modes and to magnetic reconnection. A series of local three‐dimensional MHD and Hall MHD simulations is carried out to investigate the interaction of reconnection and nonlinear KH waves considering magnetic reconnection as the primary process. It is demonstrated that the onset reconnection causes a thinning of the shear flow layer, thereby generating small wavelength KH modes. …