Formation of Electron Holes and Particle Energization During Magnetic Reconnection
J. F. Drake,1*
M. Swisdak,1
C. Cattell,2
M. A. Shay,1
B. N. Rogers,3
A. Zeiler4
Three-dimensional particle simulations of magnetic
reconnection reveal the development of turbulence driven by intense
electron beams that form near the magnetic x-line and separatrices. The turbulence collapses into localized three-dimensional nonlinear structures in which the electron density is depleted. The predicted structure of these electron holes compares favorably with satellite observations at Earth's magnetopause. The birth and death of these electron holes and their associated intense electric fields lead to
strong electron scattering and energization, whose understanding is
critical to explaining why magnetic explosions in space release energy
so quickly and produce such a large number of energetic electrons.
1 University of Maryland, College Park, MD
20742, USA.
2 School of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
3 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth
College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.
4 Centre for
Interdisciplinary Plasma Science, Max-Planck-Institut für
Plasmaphysik, 85748 Garching, Germany.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
drake{at}plasma.umd.edu
