2D or not 2D? Exploring 3D relativistic magnetic reconnection dynamics with highly accurate numerical simulations

TL;DR

This study uses highly accurate 3D relativistic MHD simulations to explore how magnetic reconnection dynamics differ between 2D and 3D configurations, revealing the importance of dimensionality and plasma conditions.

Contribution

First comprehensive 3D simulations of relativistic magnetic reconnection triggered by ideal tearing instability, comparing effects of dimensionality and magnetic topology.

Findings

3D simulations develop turbulence and sustain energy dissipation longer than 2D.

Reconnection dynamics are quenched in 3D pressure-balanced sheets after linear phase.

Reconnection efficiency depends critically on plasma conditions and current-sheet configuration.

Abstract

Fast reconnection in magnetically dominated plasmas is widely invoked in models of dissipation in pulsar winds, gamma-ray flares in the Crab nebula, and to explain the radio nanoshots of pulsars. When current sheets evolve reaching a critical inverse aspect ratio, scaling as $S^{-1/3}$ with the plasma Lundquist number, the so-called \textit{ideal} tearing instability sets in, with modes growing, independently of $S$, extremely rapidly on timescales of only a few light-crossing times of the sheet length. We present the first set of fully 3D simulations of current-sheet disruption triggered by the ideal tearing instability within the resistive relativistic MHD approximation, as appropriate in situations where the Alfv\'en velocity approaches the speed of light. We compare 3D setups with different initial conditions with their 2D counterparts, and we assess the impact of dimensionality and of the magnetic field topology on the onset, evolution, and efficiency of reconnection. In force-free configurations, 3D runs develop ideal tearing, secondary instabilities, and a thick, turbulent current layer, sustaining dissipation of magnetic energy longer than in 2D. In pressure-balanced current sheets with a null guide field, 2D reference runs show the familiar reconnection dynamics, whereas in 3D tearing dynamics is quenched after the linear phase, as pressure-driven modes growing on forming plasmoids outcompete plasmoid coalescence and suppress fast dissipation of magnetic energy. Taken together, these results suggest that the evolution and efficiency of reconnection depend sensitively on the local plasma conditions and current-sheet configuration, and can be properly captured only in fully 3D simulations.