Electron magnetic reconnection without ion coupling in Earth’s turbulent magnetosheath

T. D. Phan (), J. P. Eastwood, M. A. Shay, J. F. Drake, B. U. Ö. Sonnerup, M. Fujimoto, P. A. Cassak, M. Øieroset, J. L. Burch, R. B. Torbert, A. C. Rager, J. C. Dorelli, D. J. Gershman, C. Pollock, P. S. Pyakurel, C. C. Haggerty, Y. Khotyaintsev, B. Lavraud, Y. Saito, M. Oka, R. E. Ergun, A. Retino, O. Contel, M. R. Argall, B. L. Giles, T. E. Moore, F. D. Wilder, R. J. Strangeway, C. T. Russell, P. A. Lindqvist and W. Magnes
Additional contact information
T. D. Phan: University of California
J. P. Eastwood: Imperial College London
M. A. Shay: University of Delaware
J. F. Drake: University of Maryland
B. U. Ö. Sonnerup: Dartmouth College
M. Fujimoto: ISAS/JAXA
P. A. Cassak: West Virginia University
M. Øieroset: University of California
J. L. Burch: Southwest Research Institute
R. B. Torbert: University of New Hampshire
A. C. Rager: Catholic University of America
J. C. Dorelli: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
D. J. Gershman: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
C. Pollock: Denali Scientific
P. S. Pyakurel: University of Delaware
C. C. Haggerty: University of Delaware
Y. Khotyaintsev: Swedish Institute of Space Physics
B. Lavraud: Université de Toulouse
Y. Saito: ISAS/JAXA
M. Oka: University of California
R. E. Ergun: University of Colorado LASP
A. Retino: CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique
O. Contel: CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique
M. R. Argall: University of New Hampshire
B. L. Giles: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
T. E. Moore: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
F. D. Wilder: University of Colorado LASP
R. J. Strangeway: University of California, Los Angeles
C. T. Russell: University of California, Los Angeles
P. A. Lindqvist: Royal Institute of Technology
W. Magnes: Austrian Academy of Sciences

Nature, 2018, vol. 557, issue 7704, 202-206

Abstract: Abstract Magnetic reconnection in current sheets is a magnetic-to-particle energy conversion process that is fundamental to many space and laboratory plasma systems. In the standard model of reconnection, this process occurs in a minuscule electron-scale diffusion region1,2. On larger scales, ions couple to the newly reconnected magnetic-field lines and are ejected away from the diffusion region in the form of bi-directional ion jets at the ion Alfvén speed3–5. Much of the energy conversion occurs in spatially extended ion exhausts downstream of the diffusion region6. In turbulent plasmas, which contain a large number of small-scale current sheets, reconnection has long been suggested to have a major role in the dissipation of turbulent energy at kinetic scales7–11. However, evidence for reconnection plasma jetting in small-scale turbulent plasmas has so far been lacking. Here we report observations made in Earth’s turbulent magnetosheath region (downstream of the bow shock) of an electron-scale current sheet in which diverging bi-directional super-ion-Alfvénic electron jets, parallel electric fields and enhanced magnetic-to-particle energy conversion were detected. Contrary to the standard model of reconnection, the thin reconnecting current sheet was not embedded in a wider ion-scale current layer and no ion jets were detected. Observations of this and other similar, but unidirectional, electron jet events without signatures of ion reconnection reveal a form of reconnection that can drive turbulent energy transfer and dissipation in electron-scale current sheets without ion coupling.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0091-5

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