Observations of Hall reconnection physics far downstream of the X-line
File(s)PhysRevLett.117.185102.pdf (1.01 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Observations made using the Wind spacecraft of Hall magnetic fields in solar wind reconnection exhausts are presented. These observations are consistent with the generation of Hall fields by a narrow ion inertial scale current layer near the separatrix, which is confirmed with an appropriately scaled particle-in-cell simulation that shows excellent agreement with observations. The Hall fields are observed thousands of ion inertial lengths downstream from the reconnection X line, indicating that narrow regions of kinetic dynamics can persist extremely far downstream.
Date Issued
2016-10-28
Date Acceptance
2016-09-14
Citation
Physical Review Letters, 2016, 117
ISSN
1079-7114
Publisher
American Physical Society
Journal / Book Title
Physical Review Letters
Volume
117
Copyright Statement
© 2016 The Authors. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution
of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and
the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution
of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and
the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
Sponsor
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Imperial College Trust
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Grant Number
ST/G00725X/1
N/A
ST/K001051/1
Subjects
General Physics
02 Physical Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 185102