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In this paper, with a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation model, we study the formation of power-law spectra of energetic electrons in multiple X line magnetic reconnection with a strong guide field. The processes of both magnetic reconnection and electron acceleration can be separated into two stages. In the first stage, two X lines appear at the border and center of the simulation domain, and then, two magnetic islands are formed. In this stage, electrons are accelerated mainly by parallel electric fields, and a power-law spectrum of energetic electrons is generated with the appearance of the second X line. In the second stage, the two magnetic islands are merged into one big island. Besides parallel electric fields, the Fermi mechanism also plays an important role in the production of energetic electrons, and its contribution is comparable to that of parallel electric fields when the electron energy is sufficiently large. In this stage, the generated power-law spectrum of energetic electrons becomes hard. In general, the acceleration efficiencies by both the parallel electric fields and Fermi mechanism become higher with the increase in electron energy, and the tendency is more obvious for the Fermi mechanism. Therefore, both the parallel electric fields and Fermi mechanism are important in the formation of power-law spectra of energetic electrons during multiple X line reconnection. We also investigate the influences of the ion-electron temperature ratio, guide field, and initial flux perturbation on the formed power-law spectra of energetic electrons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, by taking advantage of a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation model, we study the structure of the out-of-plane magnetic field (Hall magnetic field) during asymmetric magnetic reconnection without a guide field, and the associated in-plane current system is also analyzed. The evolution of asymmetric reconnection has two stages. At the first stage, the electrons move toward the X line along the separatrix in the magnetosheath side, and depart from the X line along the separatrix in the magnetosphere side. Another electron flow toward the X line exists above the separatrix in the magnetosphere side. The resulted in-plane current system, which is mainly determined by electron dynamics, generates the quadrupolar structure of the Hall magnetic field, where the two quadrants in the magnetosheath side are much stronger than those in the magnetosphere side. At the second stage, besides these electron flows, an additional electron flow away from the X line is formed along the magnetic field below the separatrix in the magnetosheath side. A hexapolar structure of the Hall magnetic field is then generated by such a current system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell simulations are performed to investigate the structures of the out-of-plane magnetic field in magnetic island, which is produced during anti-parallel collisionless magnetic reconnection. Regular structures with alternate positive and negative values of the out-of-plane magnetic field along the x direction are formed in magnetic island. The generation mechanism of such structures is also proposed in this paper, which is due to the Weibel instability excited by the temperature anisotropy in magnetic island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron phase space holes (electron holes) are found to be unstable to the transverse instability. Two-dimensional (2D) electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations are performed to investigate the structures of the fluctuating magnetic field associated with electron holes. The combined actions between the transverse instability and the stabilization by the background magnetic field (B0=B0evector x) lead a one-dimensional electron hole into several 2D electron holes which are isolated in both the x and y directions. The electrons trapped in these 2D electron holes suffer the electric field drift vE=E×B0/B02 due to the existence of the perpendicular electric field Ey, which generates the current along the z direction. Then, the unipolar and bipolar structures are formed for the parallel cut of the fluctuating magnetic field along the x and y directions, respectively. At the same time, these 2D electron holes move along the x direction, and the unipolar structures are formed for the parallel cut of the fluctuating magnetic field along the z direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As observation have shown, magnetic islands often appear before and/or after the onset of magnetic reconnections in the current sheets, and they also appear in the current sheets in the solar corona, Earth's magnetotail, and Earth's magnetopause. Thus, the existence of magnetic islands can affect the initial conditions in magnetic reconnection. In this paper, we propose a model of quasi-static magnetic island eigenmodes in the current sheet. This model analytically describes the magnetic field structures in the quasi-static case, which will provide a possible approach to reconstructing the magnetic structures in the current sheet via observation data. This model is self-consistent in the kinetic theory. Also, the distribution function of charged particles in the magnetic island can be calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional hybrid simulations are performed to investigate the parametric decay of a monochromatic Alfven wave in low beta plasma. Both the linearly and left-hand polarized pump Alfven waves are considered in the paper. For the linearly polarized pump Alfven wave, either a parallel or obliquely propagating wave can lead to the decay along the perpendicular direction. Initially, the parametric decay takes place along the propagating direction of the pump wave, and then the decay occurs in the perpendicular direction. With the increase of the amplitude and the propagating angle of the pump wave (the angle between the propagating direction of the pump wave and the ambient magnetic field), the spectral range of the excited waves becomes broad in the perpendicular direction. But the effects of the plasma beta on the spectral range of the excited waves in perpendicular direction are negligible. However, for the left-hand polarized pump Alfven wave, when the pump wave propagates along the ambient magnetic field, the parametric decay occurs nearly along the ambient magnetic field, and there is no obvious decay in the perpendicular direction. Significant decay in the perpendicular direction can only be found when the pump wave propagates obliquely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]