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Microphysics of Magnetic Reconnection in Near-Earth Space

Spacecraft Observations and Numerical Simulations

  • Book
  • © 2020

Overview

Authors:
  1. Giulia Cozzani

    1. Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden

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  • Nominated as an outstanding Ph.D. thesis by the Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas – École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
  • Includes a comprehensive review of recent advances in our understanding of magnetic reconnection at the electron scale
  • Presents evidence on the complex structure of the electron diffusion region by means of MMS (Magnetospheric MultiScale) data
  • Presents a detailed description of a novel Eulerian, fully kinetic code designed to address plasma physics at the electron scale

Part of the book series: Springer Theses (Springer Theses)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Giulia Cozzani
    Pages 1-6

  3. Fundamental Concepts Associated with Magnetic Reconnection

    • Giulia Cozzani
    Pages 7-24

  4. Magnetic Reconnection at the Earth’s Magnetosphere

    • Giulia Cozzani
    Pages 25-32

  5. Methods of Spacecraft Data Analysis

    • Giulia Cozzani
    Pages 33-56

  6. Numerical Models for Astrophysical Plasmas

    • Giulia Cozzani
    Pages 57-68

  7. The Electron Diffusion Region

    • Giulia Cozzani
    Pages 69-75

  8. In Situ Spacecraft Observations of a Structured Electron Diffusion Region During Magnetopause Reconnection

    • Giulia Cozzani
    Pages 77-102

  9. ViDA: A Vlasov-DArwin Solver for Plasma Physics at Electron Scales

    • Giulia Cozzani
    Pages 103-123

  10. Fully Kinetic Vlasov Simulation of Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection

    • Giulia Cozzani
    Pages 125-144

  11. Conclusions and Outlook

    • Giulia Cozzani
    Pages 145-148

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 149-157
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Keywords

About this book

This book presents recent advances in the physics of magnetic reconnection, investigated via both in situ spacecraft observations and fully kinetic numerical simulations. Magnetic reconnection is a  fundamental process in plasma physics during which the topological reconfiguration of the magnetic field leads to energy conversion and particle energization. The book focuses on the physics of the electron diffusion region (EDR), a crucial region where the electrons are decoupled from the magnetic field and efficiently accelerated by the electric field. By using recent, high-resolution measurements provided by NASA’s Magnetospheric MultiScale Mission (MMS), the book investigates the structure of the EDR at the Earth’s magnetopause. The presented analysis provides evidence for an inhomogeneous and patchy EDR structure. The structure of the EDR appears to be more complex than the in laminar picture suggested by previous observations and simulations. Then, electrons dynamics inthe EDR is studied using a novel, fully kinetic Eulerian Vlasov–Darwin model that has been implemented in the Vlasov–DArwin numerical code (ViDA), explained in detail in the book. Lastly, the book covers the testing of this new code, and investigates the contributions of the different terms in the generalized Ohm’s law within the EDR, highlighting the role of the electron inertia term.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden

    Giulia Cozzani

About the author

Giulia Cozzani is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics in Uppsala, Sweden. She received her PhD from Université Paris-Saclay (École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France) and from Università di Pisa (Pisa, Italy) in 2019. Her main research interests are related to magnetic reconnection in space plasmas, in particular at the Earth’s magnetosphere. She has been focusing on the electron scale processes related to magnetic reconnection taking place in the electron diffusion region.

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