Hybrid-Vlasov 3D3V Turbulence
In this work, we performed 3D3V hybrid-Vlasov (fully kinetic ions and fluid electrons) simulations of sub-ion-scale plasma turbulence with quasi-isotropic, compressible injection close to the ion scales. The goal was to reproduce the typical conditions past the Earth’s bow shock, in the magnetosheath, to investigate electron-only reconnection and ion heating.3D rendering of the magnitude of the perpendicular magnetic field and the current density.We examined how the occurrence of electron-only reconnection can be triggered in kinetic-range turbulence. This unique form of reconnection is characterized by an outflow predominantly carried by electrons alone and has been recently observed in various regions in the near-Earth’s environment suach as the magnetosheath.Electron-only reconnection event. The white and blue arrows are magnetic field lines (lower magnitude in blue, larger magnitude in white). The yellow arrows are streamlines of the velocity (normalized by the Alfvén speed) field, for the electron (left panel) and the ions (right panel).Secondly, we explored how turbulence conditions that favour the emergence of electron-only reconnection impact the turbulent heating of ions. Histogram of the (βi,∥, Ti,⊥/Ti,∥) values occurring in the simulation domain and over a time interval around the peak turbulent activity for HVM runs with βi = 0.25 (left distribution), βi = 1 (center distribution), and βi = 4 (right distribution).
