Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
Volume 110, Issue 13, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.135004
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Funding
- DOE Junior Faculty [DE-FG02-06ER54878]
- NASA [NNH11CC65C]
- NASA Heliophysics Theory Program
- NASA Solar and Heliospheric Physics Program
- Directorate For Geosciences
- Div Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences [0844620] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The electron diffusion region during magnetic reconnection lies in different regimes depending on the pressure anisotropy, which is regulated by the properties of thermal electron orbits. In kinetic simulations at the weakest guide fields, pitch angle mixing in velocity space causes the outflow electron pressure to become nearly isotropic. Above a threshold guide field that depends on a range of parameters, including the normalized electron pressure and the ion-to-electron mass ratio, electron pressure anisotropy develops in the exhaust and supports extended current layers. This new regime with electron current sheets extending to the system size is also reproduced by fluid simulations with an anisotropic closure for the electron pressure. It offers an explanation for recent spacecraft observations. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.135004
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