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Magnetic islands formed due to the Kelvin‐Helmholtz instability in the outflow region of collisionless magnetic reconnection
Author(s) -
Huang Can,
Lu Quanming,
Guo Fan,
Wu Mingyu,
Du Aimin,
Wang Shui
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2015gl065690
Subject(s) - magnetic reconnection , outflow , physics , instability , vortex , electron , magnetic field , geophysics , mechanics , meteorology , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics
We carry out large‐scale particle‐in‐cell kinetic simulations to demonstrate that a super‐Alfvénic electron shear flow across the current layer can be spontaneously generated in the outflow region of magnetic reconnection, which is unstable to the electron Kelvin‐Helmholtz (K‐H) instability. The resulted K‐H vortex structures continuously drive the secondary magnetic reconnection and formation of secondary magnetic islands, which leads to strong electron energization in the outflow region.