Wb. Pei et al., Long time scale evolution of collisionless driven reconnection in a two-dimensional open system, PHYS PLASMA, 8(7), 2001, pp. 3251-3257
Long time scale evolution of collisionless driven reconnection in an open s
ystem is investigated by means of two-dimensional full particle simulation
based on an open boundary model. Collisionless reconnection is externally d
riven by the plasma inflow, which is mainly controlled by two key parameter
s of an external driving electric field, i.e., the strength E-0 and the ear
ly nonuniformity scale x(d). The strength E-0 controls reconnection rate, w
hile the scale x(d) controls the current layer shape and thus the magnetic-
field configuration. It is found that the dynamical behavior of collisionle
ss reconnection is sensitive to x(d) and less to E-0 in our simulation para
meter range. In the small x(d) case, the system evolves toward a steady sta
te in which the reconnection rate is balanced with the external driving fie
ld E-0. As x(d) increases, the reconnection evolution exhibits an intermitt
ent phenomenon because of the frequent excitation of magnetic islands near
the original X point. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.