New LANL 3-D model shows the formation of "flux ropes" in a thin boundary layer of a magnetic field. This research seeks to uncover the most fundamental physics of magnetic reconnection, key to a better understanding of Earth’s magnetosphere.
This new theory was developed to better explain recent large-scale three-dimensional kinetic simulations that describe the physics of this process. LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, April 15, 2011—In this week's Nature Physics , Los Alamos physicist Bill Daughton and a team of scientists present a new theory of how magnetic reconnection proceeds in high-temperature plasmas. Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process in physics, the continuous breaking and rearrangement of magnetic field lines in a plasma—a hot ionized gas. Understanding reconnection phenomena has broad implications in how Earth's magnetosphere functions, how solar flares and coronal mass ejections work—and how they might affect our planet, and a wide variety of astrophysical settings. This new theory was developed to better explain recent large-scale three-dimensional kinetic simulations that describe the physics of this process at the most basic level. "Previous kinetic studies have been primarily limited to simple two-dimensional models,” said Daughton. "A team of researchers from across the Laboratory employed a first-principles approach to study the dynamic evolution in three dimensions using the plasma simulation code VPIC, a particle-in-cell plasma physics code.
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