Reconnection in a Pinch

Abstract: A recently published, new analysis of current sheets updated the classic Harris 1D static solution by considering multiple classes of charged particle trajectories in a generalized dynamic current sheet. It used a 1D PIC simulation to describe dynamic pinching and bifurcation of the sheet. These 1D results strongly suggest that plasma beta or other properties of the inflowing plasma have a strong effect on the equilibrium thickness of the pinched current sheet, but cannot describe magnetic reconnection. The time appears right to carry such 1D studies over to 3D simulations where current sheet thickness has been found exert an enabling or disabling influence on reconnection. The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS), with its well-resolved multipoint measurements, has found that reconnection is enabled in collisionless plasma by non-adiabatic motions of electrons that can only occur in narrow magnetic structures with a scale comparable to electron inertial lengths (de). The recent 1D studies strongly suggest that a pinch to such scales can only occur for inflowing magnetized plasmas with relatively low plasma beta. We conclude that a parametric exploration of 3D simulated and observed inflow conditions, especially plasma beta, should shed light on the enablement of reconnection in collisionless plasmas.