An analytical model of “Electron-Only” magnetic reconnection rates
"Electron-only" reconnection, which is both uncoupled from the surrounding ions and much faster than standard reconnection, is arguably ubiquitous in turbulence. One critical step to understanding the rate in this novel regime is to model the outflow speed that limits the transport of the magnetic flux, which is super ion Alfvénic but significantly lower than the electron Alfvén speed based on the asymptotic reconnecting field. Here we develop a simple model to determine this limiting speed by taking into account the multiscale nature of reconnection, the Hall-mediated electron outflow speed, and the pressure buildup within the small system. The predicted scalings of rates and various key quantities compare well with fully kinetic simulations and can be useful for interpreting the observations of NASA's Magnetospheric-Multiscale (MMS) mission and other ongoing missions.
Authors
- Xiaocan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5278-8029)
- Naoki Bessho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5431-174X)
- P. S. Pyakurel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4832-7638)
- K. J. Genestreti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6890-2973)
- Yi‐Hsin Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5880-2645)
- Shiva Bikram Thapa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5506-4851)
- Michael Hesse (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7518-0224)
Institutions
- Dartmouth College (US)
- Ames Research Center (US)
- Southwest Research Institute (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Physics
- Published
- 2025-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-025-02034-z
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.62
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
- Nuclear Safety and Security Commission