2,574 research outputs found
Transition from ion-coupled to electron-only reconnection: Basic physics and implications for plasma turbulence
Using kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, we simulate reconnection
conditions appropriate for the magnetosheath and solar wind, i.e., plasma beta
(ratio of gas pressure to magnetic pressure) greater than 1 and low magnetic
shear (strong guide field). Changing the simulation domain size, we find that
the ion response varies greatly. For reconnecting regions with scales
comparable to the ion Larmor radius, the ions do not respond to the
reconnection dynamics leading to ''electron-only'' reconnection with very large
quasi-steady reconnection rates. The transition to more traditional
''ion-coupled'' reconnection is gradual as the reconnection domain size
increases, with the ions becoming frozen-in in the exhaust when the magnetic
island width in the normal direction reaches many ion inertial lengths. During
this transition, the quasi-steady reconnection rate decreases until the ions
are fully coupled, ultimately reaching an asymptotic value. The scaling of the
ion outflow velocity with exhaust width during this electron-only to
ion-coupled transition is found to be consistent with a theoretical model of a
newly reconnected field line. In order to have a fully frozen-in ion exhaust
with ion flows comparable to the reconnection Alfv\'en speed, an exhaust width
of at least several ion inertial lengths is needed. In turbulent systems with
reconnection occurring between magnetic bubbles associated with fluctuations,
using geometric arguments we estimate that fully ion-coupled reconnection
requires magnetic bubble length scales of at least several tens of ion inertial
lengths
Kinetic dissipation and anisotropic heating in a turbulent collisionless plasma
The kinetic evolution of the Orszag-Tang vortex is studied using
collisionless hybrid simulations. In the magnetohydrodynamic regime this vortex
leads rapidly to broadband turbulence. Significant differences from MHD arise
at small scales, where the fluid scale energy dissipates into heat almost
exclusively through the magnetic field because the protons are decoupled from
the magnetic field. Although cyclotron resonance is absent, the protons heat
preferentially in the plane perpendicular to the mean field, as in the corona
and solar wind. Effective transport coefficients are calculated.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to PR
Not So SuperDense Coding - Deterministic Dense Coding with Partially Entangled States
The utilization of a -level partially entangled state, shared by two
parties wishing to communicate classical information without errors over a
noiseless quantum channel, is discussed. We analytically construct
deterministic dense coding schemes for certain classes of non-maximally
entangled states, and numerically obtain schemes in the general case. We study
the dependency of the information capacity of such schemes on the partially
entangled state shared by the two parties. Surprisingly, for it is
possible to have deterministic dense coding with less than one ebit. In this
case the number of alphabet letters that can be communicated by a single
particle, is between and 2d. In general we show that the alphabet size
grows in "steps" with the possible values . We also find
that states with less entanglement can have greater communication capacity than
other more entangled states.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Two-scale structure of the electron dissipation region during collisionless magnetic reconnection
Particle in cell (PIC) simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection are
presented that demonstrate that the electron dissipation region develops a
distinct two-scale structure along the outflow direction. The length of the
electron current layer is found to decrease with decreasing electron mass,
approaching the ion inertial length for a proton-electron plasma. A surprise,
however, is that the electrons form a high-velocity outflow jet that remains
decoupled from the magnetic field and extends large distances downstream from
the x-line. The rate of reconnection remains fast in very large systems,
independent of boundary conditions and the mass of electrons.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letters, 4 pages, 4 figure
From Solar and Stellar Flares to Coronal Heating: Theory and Observations of How Magnetic Reconnection Regulates Coronal Conditions
There is currently no explanation of why the corona has the temperature and
density it has. We present a model which explains how the dynamics of magnetic
reconnection regulates the conditions in the corona. A bifurcation in magnetic
reconnection at a critical state enforces an upper bound on the coronal
temperature for a given density. We present observational evidence from 107
flares in 37 sun-like stars that stellar coronae are near this critical state.
The model may be important to self-organized criticality models of the solar
corona.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, accepted to Ap. J. Lett., February 200
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