How to probe electron-dominated current sheets by MMS, determining the electron-to-ion bulk speed ratio
Presentation Type
Talk
Presenter Format
In Person Meeting Talk
Topic
Dayside Science
Start Date
12-5-2022 2:00 PM
Abstract
Current sheets (CSs) are preferred sites of magnetic reconnection and energy dissipation in turbulent collisionless astrophysical plasmas. In our prior theoretical studies of processes associated with the CS formation in turbulent plasmas, for which we utilized fully kinetic and hybrid code simulations with ions considered as particles and electrons - as a massless fluid, we found that (i) electron-scale CSs form, (ii) in thinning the electron-to-ion bulk speed ratio Ue/Ui essentially increases, and (iii) the electrons become the main carriers of the electric currents and contributors to energy dissipation. We describe how MMS can find electron-dominated-CSs using the Ue/Ui signature as a search criterion.
How to probe electron-dominated current sheets by MMS, determining the electron-to-ion bulk speed ratio
Current sheets (CSs) are preferred sites of magnetic reconnection and energy dissipation in turbulent collisionless astrophysical plasmas. In our prior theoretical studies of processes associated with the CS formation in turbulent plasmas, for which we utilized fully kinetic and hybrid code simulations with ions considered as particles and electrons - as a massless fluid, we found that (i) electron-scale CSs form, (ii) in thinning the electron-to-ion bulk speed ratio Ue/Ui essentially increases, and (iii) the electrons become the main carriers of the electric currents and contributors to energy dissipation. We describe how MMS can find electron-dominated-CSs using the Ue/Ui signature as a search criterion.
