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Energetic particles in magnetotail reconnection

Part of: Focus on Space Plasmas Present Achievements in SpacePlasmas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2014

Ivy Bo Peng ,
Juris Vencels ,
Giovanni Lapenta ,
Andrey Divin ,
Andris Vaivads ,
Erwin Laure  and
Stefano Markidis
Ivy Bo Peng*
Affiliation:
High Performance Computing and Visualization Department (HPCViz), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 14, Stockholm 100 44, Sweden
Juris Vencels
Affiliation:
High Performance Computing and Visualization Department (HPCViz), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 14, Stockholm 100 44, Sweden
Giovanni Lapenta
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Centre for Mathematical Plasma Astrophysics (CmPA), KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200B, bus 2400 B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
Andrey Divin
Affiliation:
Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala Division, Polacksbacken, SE-751 21, Uppsala, Sweden
Andris Vaivads
Affiliation:
Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala Division, Polacksbacken, SE-751 21, Uppsala, Sweden
Erwin Laure
Affiliation:
High Performance Computing and Visualization Department (HPCViz), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 14, Stockholm 100 44, Sweden
Stefano Markidis
Affiliation:
High Performance Computing and Visualization Department (HPCViz), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 14, Stockholm 100 44, Sweden
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

We carried out a 3D fully kinetic simulation of Earth's magnetotail magnetic reconnection to study the dynamics of energetic particles. We developed and implemented a new relativistic particle mover in iPIC3D, an implicit Particle-in-Cell code, to correctly model the dynamics of energetic particles. Before the onset of magnetic reconnection, energetic electrons are found localized close to current sheet and accelerated by lower hybrid drift instability. During magnetic reconnection, energetic particles are found in the reconnection region along the x-line and in the separatrices region. The energetic electrons are first present in localized stripes of the separatrices and finally cover all the separatrix surfaces. Along the separatrices, regions with strong electron deceleration are found. In the reconnection region, two categories of electron trajectory are identified. First, part of the electrons are trapped in the reconnection region, bouncing a few times between the outflow jets. Second, part of the electrons pass the reconnection region without being trapped. Different from electrons, energetic ions are localized on the reconnection fronts of the outflow jets.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , April 2015 , 325810202
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

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