Magnetic reconnection: from MHD to QED

TL;DR

This paper explores magnetic reconnection in plasma physics, analyzing classical and quantum regimes, with a focus on laser plasma experiments and particle acceleration mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of magnetic reconnection from MHD to QED regimes, including exact solutions and the effects of laser-induced fields.

Findings

Magnetic field annihilation in ultrarelativistic plasma generates strong electric fields.

Laser pulses can create opposite polarity magnetic fields in collisionless plasma.

Quantum effects influence particle acceleration during reconnection.

Abstract

The paper examines the prospects of using laser plasmas for studying novel regimes of the magnetic field line reconnection and charged particle acceleration. Basic features of plasma dynamics in the three-dimensional configurations relevant to the formation of current sheets in a plasma are addressed by analyzing exact self-similar solutions of the magneto-hydrodynamics and electron magneto-hydrodynamics equations. Then the magnetic field annihilation in the ultrarelativistic limit is considered, when the opposite polarity magnetic field is generated in collisionless plasma by multiple laser pulses, in the regime with a dominant contribution of the displacement current exciting a strong large-scale electric field. This field leads to the conversion of the magnetic energy into the kinetic energy of accelerated particles inside a thin current sheet. Charged particle acceleration during magnetic field reconnection is discussed when radiation friction and quantum electrodynamics effects become dominant.