Relativistic magnetic reconnection in pair plasmas and its astrophysical applications

TL;DR

This review summarizes recent advances in understanding relativistic magnetic reconnection in pair plasmas, highlighting its role in high-energy astrophysical phenomena like pulsars and jets, driven by theory and particle-in-cell simulations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of how fragmentation instabilities influence reconnection dynamics and particle acceleration in relativistic pair plasmas, with astrophysical applications.

Findings

Fragmentation instabilities significantly influence reconnection speed.

Reconnection affects particle acceleration, anisotropy, and radiation.

Application to pulsars, nebulae, and jets enhances astrophysical understanding.

Abstract

This review discusses the physics of magnetic reconnection, a process in which the magnetic field topology changes and magnetic energy is converted to kinetic energy, in pair plasmas in the relativistic regime. We focus on recent progress in the field driven by theory advances and the maturity of particle-in-cell codes. This work shows that fragmentation instabilities at the current sheet can play a critical role in setting the reconnection speed and affect the resulting particle acceleration, anisotropy, bulk flows, and radiation. Then, we discuss how this novel understanding of relativistic reconnection can be applied to high-energy astrophysical phenomena, with an emphasis on pulsars, pulsar wind nebulae, and active galactic nucleus jets.