Dissipation in magnetic reconnection with a guide magnetic field

A combination of numerical simulation results and analytical theory is applied to the problem of magnetic reconnection in a guide magnetic field. An investigation of electron distribution functions within the electron diffusion region leads to a picture of mixing of particles with different acceleration histories on electron Larmor scales. Based on an apparent average loss of accelerated particles by field-aligned and ExB transport, it is proposed that the role of the reconnection electric field is to replenish this loss by acceleration of particles that enter the electron diffusion region. Analytic theory is employed to verify this model, and an equation is derived, which balances the average electric field force density by a diffusion term applied to the electron momentum density. The diffusion coefficient contains explicitly the electron Larmor spatial scale and a poloidal transport time scale. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.