Speaker
Prof.
Martin Goldman
(University of Colorado at Boulder)
Description
The primary goal of the current NASA-MMS mission is to "identify and
study diffusion
regions during magnetic reconnection in Earth's magnetopause and
magnetotail. Yet
the term diffusion region is often misunderstood and can be
ambiguous. Different
conditions for a region to be a "diffusion region" are interpreted
theoretically, related
to each other and applied to 2D PIC simulations. None of the
conditions is both
necessary and sufficient for topological reconnection to occur. During
magnetic
reconnection in a kinetic plasma key differences are found between the
locations of
diffusion regions in the electron fluid, the ion fluid and a single (MHD)
fluid.
Primary author
Prof.
Martin Goldman
(University of Colorado at Boulder)
Co-authors
Dr
David Newman
(University of Colorado at Boulder)
Prof.
Giovanni Lapenta
(Catholic University, Leuven, Belgium)
