Intense Magnetic Reconnection Process Embedded in Three‐Dimensional Turbulent Current Sheet

Abstract

Abstract Recent magnetospheric observations and three‐dimensional (3D) kinetic simulations have shown that plasma wave activities are significantly enhanced around the reconnection x‐line, implying that the reconnection process is fully 3D. However, how the turbulence affects the local reconnection process has been poorly understood so far. We find by means of large‐scale particle‐in‐cell simulation in 3D system that the local reconnection rate can be significantly enhanced, reaching 0.4, which is much larger than theoretical predictions for two‐dimensional (2D) reconnection. The large reconnection rate is associated with large energy conversion rate and strong electron acceleration. The enhancement of the reconnection rate is caused by local increases of electron momentum transport and pressure gradient force induced by turbulence, which can not occur in 2D system. The result is expected to give better interpretations to in‐situ satellite observations where magnetic reconnection proceeds in 3D system.

Keywords

• magnetic reconnection
• 3D PIC simulation
• reconnection rate
• turbulence