Electron-only Reconnection and Ion Heating in 3D3V Hybrid-Vlasov Plasma Turbulence
Résumé
We perform 3D3V hybrid-Vlasov simulations of turbulence with quasi-isotropic, compressible injection near ion scales to mimic the Earth's magnetosheath plasma, and investigate the novel electron-only reconnection, recently observed by NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, and its impact on ion heating. Retaining electron inertia in the generalized Ohm's law enables collisionless magnetic reconnection. Spectral analysis shows a shift from kinetic Alfvén waves to inertial kinetic Alfvén and inertial whistler waves near electron scales. To distinguish the roles of inertial scale and gyroradius (di and ρi), three ion beta (βi = 0.25, 1, 4) values are studied. Ion-electron decoupling increases with βi, as ions become less mobile when the injection scale is closer to ρi than di, highlighting the role of ρi in achieving an electron magnetohydrodynamic regime at sub-ion scales. This regime promotes electron-only reconnection in turbulence with small-scale injection at βi ≳ 1. We observe significant ion heating even at large βi, with Qi/epsilon ≈ 69%, 91%, and 96% at βi = 0.25, 1, and 4, respectively. While ion heating is anisotropic at βi≤ 1 (Ti,⊥ > Ti,∥), it is marginally anisotropic at βi > 1 (Ti,⊥ ≳ Ti,∥). Our results show ion turbulent heating in collisionless plasmas is sensitive to the separation between injection scales (λinj and ρi, βi, and finite-k∥ effects, necessitating further investigation for accurate modeling. These findings have implications for other collisionless astrophysical environments, like high-β plasmas in intracluster medium, where processes such as microinstabilities or shocks may inject energy near ion-kinetic scales
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