Discovery of double Hall pattern associated with collisionless magnetic reconnection in dusty plasmas

TL;DR

This paper presents the first kinetic simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection in dusty plasmas, revealing a novel double Hall pattern involving traditional and reversed Hall currents, with implications for space and laboratory plasmas.

Contribution

It introduces the discovery of a double Hall pattern in dusty plasmas during collisionless reconnection, a novel phenomenon not previously reported.

Findings

Identification of a double Hall pattern with traditional and reversed currents

Analysis of reconnection rate in dusty plasmas

Potential applications to planetary magnetospheres and laboratory studies

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection is prevalent in magnetized plasmas in space and laboratories. Despite significant investigations on reconnection in electron-ion plasmas, studies of reconnection in magnetized plasmas with negatively charged dust grains are quite sparse. Here we report the first fully kinetic simulations of collisionless reconnection in a three-species (i.e., electron, proton, and negatively charged dust grain) dusty plasma, through which the discovery of double Hall pattern is made. The double Hall pattern consists of a traditional Hall quadruple current in between the ion and electron diffusion region, and a reversed Hall current in between the boundary of the ion and dust diffusion region. The analysis of the reconnection rate is also given. This study may be applicable to explain observations of planetary magnetospheres and the astrophysical objects, and may be realized in the laboratory studies of dusty plasmas.