Dynamics of Electron-Scale Current Sheet Equilibria based on MMS Observations | CU Experts

The vicinity of the electron diffusion region (EDR) at the core of; magnetic reconnection is frequently characterized by agyrotropic; electron velocity distributions such as perpendicular velocity-space; crescents [J. L. Burch et al., Science, DOI:10.1126/science.aaf2939; (2016)]. Although the evolving EDR is not itself an equilibrium state,; its evolution may be slow on electron-cyclotron time scales. When this; is the case, homogeneous equilibrium models are limited in their ability; to model dynamical processes, such as instabilities and wave generation,; in the presence of agyrotropic populations. In order to better study; these processes, we initiate implicit PIC simulations with inhomogeneous; kinetic equilibria built upon agyrotropic electron velocity; distributions measured by the FPI spectrometers on MMS. The methodology; involves the following elements: 1. Modeling the observed agyrotropic; (e.g., crescent) and background plasma distributions 2. Numerically; evaluating self-consistent inhomogeneous equilibria – including; anisotropy 3. Initializing 1D, 2D, and 3D PIC simulations with the; equilibria 4. Evaluating the simulation output for instabilities and the; persistence of the crescents Particle tracing and other visualization; tools will be employed to illustrate the underlying dynamics of; particles and fields – and their interactions.

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