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Secondary reconnection sites in reconnection-generated flux ropes and reconnection fronts

Nature Physics volume 11, pages 690–695 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

The primary target of the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission is the electron-scale diffusion layer around reconnection sites. Here we study where these regions are found in full three-dimensional simulations. In two dimensions the sites of electron diffusion, defined as the regions where magnetic topology changes and electrons move with respect to the magnetic field lines, are located near the reconnection site. But in three dimensions we find that the reconnection exhaust far from the primary reconnection site also becomes host to secondary reconnection sites. Four diagnostics are used to demonstrate the point: the direct observation of topology impossible without secondary reconnection, the direct measurement of topological field line breakage, the measurement of electron jets emerging from secondary reconnection regions, and the violation of the frozen-in condition. We conclude that secondary reconnection occurs in a large part of the exhaust, providing many more chances for MMS to find itself in the right region to hit its target.

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Figure 1: Run A. Cycle 15,000 (ωciT = 18.2). Evidence for an interchange-type instability and secondary reconnection sites in magnetic flux ropes produced by reconnection.
Figure 2: Run A. Cycle 15,000 (ωciT = 18.2). Evidence for secondary reconnection in flux ropes formed by reconnection.
Figure 3: Run A. Cycle 15,000 (ωciT = 18.2). Direct topological measure of secondary reconnection in flux ropes produced by a reconnection x-line in the centre of the box.
Figure 4: Run B, Cycle 16,000 (ωciT = 19.4).

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Acknowledgements

The present work is supported by NASA MMS Grant No. NNX08AO84G, by Onderzoekfonds KU Leuven (Research Fund KU Leuven), by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme of the Belgian Science Policy Office (IAP P7/08 CHARM) and by the eHeroes project of the European Commission (Grant Agreement No. 284461, eheroes.eu). The simulations and data processing were conducted on NASA (NAS and NCCS) supercomputers and on the Curie, Fermi and SuperMUC supercomputers (provided by four consecutive PRACE research infrastructure Tier-0 grants). S.M. is supported by the Swedish VR grant D621-2013-4309.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Mathematical Plasma Astophysics, Departement Wiskunde, KU Leuven, Universiteit Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

    Giovanni Lapenta

  2. High Performance Computing and Visualization Department, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 10044 Stockholm, Sweden

    Stefano Markidis

  3. University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA

    Martin V. Goldman & David L. Newman

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Contributions

G.L. designed and performed the simulations and conducted the analysis of the diagnostics. S.M. contributed to the simulation approach and data processing. M.V.G. and D.L.N. contributed to the discussion of the four diagnostics of reconnection, to clarify their meaning and relevance.

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Correspondence to Giovanni Lapenta.

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Lapenta, G., Markidis, S., Goldman, M. et al. Secondary reconnection sites in reconnection-generated flux ropes and reconnection fronts. Nature Phys 11, 690–695 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3406

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