Investigating the Kinetic Effects on Current Gradient-Driven Instabilities of Electron Current Layers via Particle-in-Cell Simulations

TL;DR

This study uses particle-in-cell simulations to explore how finite electron temperatures influence current gradient-driven instabilities in electron current layers, revealing temperature-dependent stabilization and growth effects on different modes.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the kinetic effects of electron temperature on tearing and surface-preserving modes in current layers, highlighting their stability and growth behaviors.

Findings

Temperature stabilizes the tearing mode at higher values.

Growth rates of the surface-preserving mode increase with temperature.

Mixed modes exhibit asymmetric structures in magnetic reconnection.

Abstract

Electron current layers, which form in various natural and laboratory plasmas, are susceptible to multiple instabilities, with tearing being a prominent instability driven by current gradients. Tearing is considered a potential mechanism for magnetic reconnection in collisionless regimes, where electron inertia acts as a non-ideal factor that causes magnetic field lines to break and reconnect. In contrast, another mode, known as the surface-preserving mode, also driven by current gradients, maintains the magnetic field topology. In this study, we investigate the kinetic effects on these modes in the presence of finite electron temperatures using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Our findings reveal that temperature significantly stabilizes the tearing mode, particularly at higher temperatures, due to an increased electron Larmor radius and the associated magnetic field diffusion. We also examine the interplay between the guide field and temperature. Additionally, we observe that growth rates for the surface-preserving mode, in contrast to the tearing mode, increase with temperature, likely due to enhanced electron flow velocities. Furthermore, we identify cases with mixed modes, where both tearing and surface-preserving modes coexist, exhibiting asymmetric structures characteristic of asymmetric magnetic reconnection. Finally, we outline potential future research directions that build upon our findings.