Electron magnetic reconnection without ion coupling in Earth's turbulent magnetosheathDartmouth Coll, Hanover, NH 03755 USA..
JAXA, ISAS, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan..
West Virginia Univ, Morgantown, WV USA..
Univ Calif Berkeley, Space Sci Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA..
Southwest Res Inst, San Antonio, TX USA..
Univ New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824 USA..
Catholic Univ Amer, Washington, DC 20064 USA.;NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD USA..
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD USA..
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD USA..
Denali Sci, Healy, AK USA..
Univ Delaware, Newark, DE USA..
Univ Delaware, Newark, DE USA..
Swedish Inst Space Phys, Uppsala, Sweden..
Univ Toulouse, Inst Rech Astrophys & Planetol, Toulouse, France..
JAXA, ISAS, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan..
Univ Calif Berkeley, Space Sci Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA..
Univ Colorado, LASP, Boulder, CO 80309 USA..
Ecole Polytech, CNRS, Paris, France..
Ecole Polytech, CNRS, Paris, France..
Univ New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824 USA..
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD USA..
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD USA..
Univ Colorado, LASP, Boulder, CO 80309 USA..
Univ Calif Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA USA..
Univ Calif Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA USA..
Austrian Acad Sci, Space Res Inst, Graz, Austria..
Show others and affiliations
2018 (English)In: Nature, ISSN 0028-0836, E-ISSN 1476-4687, Vol. 557, no 7704, p. 202-+Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Magnetic reconnection in current sheets is a magnetic-to-particle energy conversion process that is fundamental to many space and laboratory plasma systems. In the standard model of reconnection, this process occurs in a minuscule electron-scale diffusion region(1,2). On larger scales, ions couple to the newly reconnected magnetic-field lines and are ejected away from the diffusion region in the form of bi-directional ion jets at the ion Alfven speed(3-5). Much of the energy conversion occurs in spatially extended ion exhausts downstream of the diffusion region(6). In turbulent plasmas, which contain a large number of small-scale current sheets, reconnection has long been suggested to have a major role in the dissipation of turbulent energy at kinetic scales(7-11). However, evidence for reconnection plasma jetting in small-scale turbulent plasmas has so far been lacking. Here we report observations made in Earth's turbulent magnetosheath region (downstream of the bow shock) of an electron-scale current sheet in which diverging bi-directional super-ion-Alfvenic electron jets, parallel electric fields and enhanced magnetic-to-particle energy conversion were detected. Contrary to the standard model of reconnection, the thin reconnecting current sheet was not embedded in a wider ion-scale current layer and no ion jets were detected. Observations of this and other similar, but unidirectional, electron jet events without signatures of ion reconnection reveal a form of reconnection that can drive turbulent energy transfer and dissipation in electron-scale current sheets without ion coupling.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP , 2018. Vol. 557, no 7704, p. 202-+
National Category
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-228425DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0091-5ISI: 000431775100042PubMedID: 29743689Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85046625072OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-228425DiVA, id: diva2:1210762
Note
QC 20180529
2018-05-292018-05-292022-06-26Bibliographically approved