2003/05/01 by M. Swisdak, B. N. Rogers, J. F. Drake +1 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Magnetic confinement fusion research #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph #physics.space-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1029/2002ja009726
10 pages, 10 figures; accepted by JGR; agu2001.cls and agu.bst included
openalex publication_date 2003/05/01 · arxiv created 2003/05/07 · arxiv updated 2015/06/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present particle‐in‐cell simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection in a system (like the magnetopause) with a large density asymmetry across the current layer. In the presence of an ambient component of the magnetic field perpendicular to the reconnection plane the gradient creates a diamagnetic drift that advects the X‐line with the electron diamagnetic velocity. When the relative drift between the ions and electrons is of the order the Alfvén speed the large scale outflows from the X‐line necessary for fast reconnection cannot develop and the reconnection is suppressed. We discuss how these effects vary with both the plasma β and the shear angle of the reconnecting field and discuss observational evidence for diamagnetic stabilization at the magnetopause.