Three-dimensional magnetic reconnection in astrophysical plasmas - a kinetic approach and simulation results

Jörg Büchner and Jens-Peer Kuska

Bibliographic information and hyperlinks:

Details can be found in Büchner, 1999, Three-dimensional magnetic reconnection in astrophysical plasmas - kinetic approach, Astrophysics and Space Sciences, Vol. 264, 25-42, 1999. paper in pdf format Kuska and Büchner, 1999, The three-dimensional fully kinetic electromagnetic PIC simulation code GISMO, in: Proc. VIIth International Conference on Plasma Astrophysics and Space Physics, Kluwer Acad. Publ., 1999, 645-652. paper in pdf format Büchner and Kuska, 1999, Sausage mode instability of thin current sheets, Ann. Geophysicae, 17, No. 5, 604-612, 1999. abstract and paper in pdf format

How to use the virtual reality files and movies:

The figures with the black background automatically start to evolve as soon as they can be fully seen on the screen. Using the virtual reality option behind this page you can rotate the field line structures, move through it and watch it from any distance. If your World-Wide-Web browser is already virtual-reality-enabled any double-clicking of the framed figures below opens the virtual reality (wrl) files for viewing. If not, simply install a free browser plugin, for example the current version of the CosmoPlayer. It can be downloaded from the Internet after clicking SGI Cosmo Player.

Unstable decay of a marginally thin current sheet (mass ratio 1:64):

Below follows an animation of the decay dynamics of a marginally thin current sheet. The color planes depict the edges of the simulation box.


 
The three framed figures below correspond to three characteristic moments of the evolution of the instability of a marginally thin current sheet. The right panel corresponds to Figure 1. in Büchner, 1999. The virtual reality files of the figures can be opened by clicking them.

Compare with: Unstable decay of a marginally thin current sheet with a mass ratio unity:

Below follows an animation of the decay dynamics of a marginally thin current sheet in the case of a mass ratio 1:1.


 
The three framed figures below correspond to three characteristic moments of the evolution of the instability. Their virtual reality files can be opened by clicking any figure.
 

Magnetic field topology of three-dimensional kinetic reconnection, simulated for a hypercritically thin current sheet for a mass ratio 1:25

The virtual reality files of the following figures can also be viewed after clicking them. First you see an overview of magnetic field and density structure (Figure 2. of Büchner, 1999).
In the following table you can watch the details of the magnetic field topology between two magnetic nulls (the left panel, Figure 3. of Büchner, 1999) the field structure near a converging null (middle panel, Figure 4. of Büchner, 1999) and near a diverging null (right panel, Figure 5. of Büchner, 1999). Again, the virtual reality viewer can be activated by double-clicking the figures.

Acknowledgments:

The images, animation frames and virtual reality files on this page were created using Mathematica and the viewer MathGL3d. The simulation code GISMO and the viewer MathGL3d were developed in the framework of research project BU 777/2-3 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, whom we gratefully thank for the support.