College of Engineering, Design & Computing Events

CEDC seminar: Inherently three-dimensional electron-only magnetic reconnection

| 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Room Number : 2002
North Classroom
1200 Larimer Street
Denver, CO

Dr. Prayash Sharma Pyakurel, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Space Science Laboratory, University of California Berkeley

Abstract
Recent MMS observations in the downstream of the quasi-parallel shock have shed some light into small scale “electron-only” magnetic reconnection embedded inside turbulence. In such magnetic reconnection events, large guide field and beta >= 1, the parallel electric field close to the x-line is measured to be about ~8mV/m, much larger than measured in previously observed magnetic reconnection events. In 2.5D simulations, it has been shown that the reconnection rate for fully ion-coupled and steady-state magnetic reconnection is of the order 0.1 CA,up, far below recent spacecraft observations of the electron-only reconnection. We perform force-free particle-in-cell simulations of high beta plasma in 3D and 2.5D and find that the parallel electric field measured at the x-line is about two times greater in 3D versus 2.5D configuration. The enhancement of parallel electric field is an inherent feature of three-dimensional magnetic reconnection.

Bio
Dr. Pyakurel finished his doctorate program in 2019, at the University of Delaware, and since then has been working at the Space Science Laboratory using in-situ spacecraft data from Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) and Parker Solar Probe (PSP). His work has primarily investigated magnetic reconnection using particle-in-cell simulations to understand reconnection events at the magnetotail and the magnetosheath.
Email Address: pspyakurel@berkeley.edu

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