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One‐dimensional hybrid simulations of current sheets in the quiet magnetotail
Author(s) -
Cargill P. J.,
Chen J.,
Harold J. B.
Publication year - 1994
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 - 10.1029/94gl01693
Subject(s) - physics , current sheet , ion , current (fluid) , magnetic field , instability , plasma sheet , quiet , massless particle , magnetohydrodynamics , magnetic reconnection , field (mathematics) , electron , atomic physics , kinetic energy , computational physics , mechanics , magnetosphere , classical mechanics , mathematical physics , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics , mathematics , pure mathematics
Hybrid simulations (kinetic ions, massless fluid electrons) have been performed of the magnetotail current sheet for parameters characteristic of the quiet magnetotail ( υ D , b n < 1). Here b n = B n /B 0 ,υ D = ( cE y /B n )/υ i , B n is the north / south ( z ) magnetic field, B 0 the asymptotic value of the tailward ( x ) field and υ i the ion thermal speed, where the magnetospheric coordinate system is used. It is shown that the current sheet is more stable than in previously examined cases with high υ D and / or large b n . A clear single reversal in B x persists over the entire simulation and a B y component is created, with a slow rate of growth (hundreds of Ω i −1 , where Ω i = eB 0 /m i C ). This is many minutes in real time. It is suggested that the waves are due to an electromagnetic instability of the cross‐field ion current.

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