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Particle dynamics, chaos, and order in the magnetotail
Author(s) -
Chen James
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
reviews of geophysics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 8.087
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1944-9208
pISSN - 8755-1209
DOI - 10.1029/95rg00493
Subject(s) - collisionality , physics , current sheet , plasma sheet , plasma , magnetic reconnection , particle acceleration , current (fluid) , magnetic field , range (aeronautics) , astrophysical plasma , computational physics , magnetosphere , particle (ecology) , charged particle , magnetosphere particle motion , magnetohydrodynamics , ion , aerospace engineering , nuclear physics , oceanography , quantum mechanics , geology , engineering , tokamak , thermodynamics
Current sheets are prevalent in space, astrophysical, and laboratory plasmas. They occur in boundary layers between regions of oppositely directed components of magnetic field, typically occupying small spatial regions inside larger systems. A current sheet, however, represents a significant magnetic energy reservoir and can play a critical role in determining the properties of the larger system in which it is embedded. Important physical processes in current sheets include magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration. The charged particles are typically collisionless in space and astrophysical plasmas while those in laboratory plasmas can exhibit a range of collisionality.