Journal
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS
Volume 116, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1029/2011JA016429
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Funding
- NASA MMS [NNX08AO84G]
- Onderzoekfonds KU Leuven (Research Fund KU Leuven)
- European Commission [FP7/2007-2013, 263340]
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Particle-in-Cell simulations of magnetic reconnection with an H+ current sheet and a mixed background plasma of H+ and O+ ions are completed using physical mass ratios. Four main results are shown. First, the O+ presence slightly decreases the reconnection rate and the magnetic reconnection evolution depends mainly on the lighter H+ ion species in the presented simulations. Second, the Hall magnetic field is characterized by a two-scale structure in presence of O+ ions: it reaches sharp peak values in a small area in proximity of the neutral line, and then decreases slowly over a large region. Third, the two background species initially separate in the outflow region because H+ and O+ ions are accelerated by different mechanisms occurring on different timescales and with different strengths. Fourth, the effect of a guide field on the O+ dynamics is studied: the O+ presence does not change the reconnected flux and all the characteristic features of guide field magnetic reconnection are still present. Moreover, the guide field introduces an O+ circulation pattern between separatrices that enhances high O+ density areas and depletes low O+ density regions in proximity of the reconnection fronts. The importance and the validity of these results are finally discussed.
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