Effect of guide field on three dimensional electron shear flow instabilities in collisionless magnetic reconnection

TL;DR

This study investigates how an external guide field and current sheet thickness influence the growth and nature of three-dimensional electron shear flow instabilities in collisionless magnetic reconnection, revealing conditions for tearing and non-tearing modes.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the effects of guide field and sheet thickness on electron shear flow instabilities, including mode resonance conditions and the transition between tearing and non-tearing modes.

Findings

Growth rate decreases with increasing sheet thickness.

Fastest mode switches from tearing to non-tearing with guide field and thickness.

Resonance conditions depend on dissipation mechanisms.

Abstract

We examine the effect of an external guide field and current sheet thickness on the growth rates and nature of three dimensional unstable modes of an electron current sheet driven by electron shear flow. The growth rate of the fastest growing mode drops rapidly with current sheet thickness but increases slowly with the strength of the guide field. The fastest growing mode is tearing type only for thin current sheets (half thickness $\approx d_e$, where $d_e=c/\omega_{pe}$ is electron inertial length) and zero guide field. For finite guide field or thicker current sheets, fastest growing mode is non-tearing type. However growth rates of the fastest 2-D tearing mode and 3-D non-tearing mode are comparable for thin current sheets ($d_e < $half thickness $ < 2\,d_e$) and small guide field (of the order of the asymptotic value of the component of magnetic field supporting electron current sheet). It is shown that the general mode resonance conditions for electron-magnetohydrodynamic (EMHD) and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) tearing modes depend on the effective dissipation mechanism (electron inertia and resistivity in cases of EMHD and MHD, respectively). The usual tearing mode resonance condition ($\mathbf{k}.\mathbf{B}_0=0$, $\mathbf{k}$ is the wave vector and $\mathbf{B}_0$ is equilibrium magnetic field) can be recovered from the general resonance conditions in the limit of weak dissipation. Necessary conditions (relating current sheet thickness, strength of the guide field and wave numbers) for the existence of tearing mode are obtained from the general mode resonance conditions.