CAREER: Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection in the Earth's Magnetosphere

University Of Delaware, Newark DE

Investigators

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection in plasmas is ubiquitous and occurs in laboratory plasma devices, in Earth's magnetosphere, in the heliosphere, on the sun and in astrophysical plasmas. This project will be primarily oriented toward understanding magnetic reconnection in Earth's magnetosphere, but the fundamental, physical understanding of the process will have impacts on many areas of plasma research. The primary questions addressed by this project are: (1) Is magnetic reconnection always bursty and time dependent? Are there situations in which magnetic reconnection can be steady for long periods of time? (2) How does magnetic reconnection energize particles in the Earth's magnetosphere? Does a Fermi process associated with contracting islands play a critical role? What are the signatures expected from this Fermi process, and under what magnetospheric parameters is it active? (3) what are the signatures and properties of reconnection in more realistic geometries applicable to magnetospheric reconnection? How are the signatures and rate of reconnection affected by extremely low density in the magnetospheric lobes and asymmetric inflow conditions at the dayside magnetopause? What is the nature of inherently 3D reconnection around 3D magnetic nulls and separator lines in the dayside magnetosphere? Does Hall physics fundamentally modify the nature of this 3D reconnection? These questions will be studied with a broad range of numerical simulations, using two-fluid, hybrid, and full particle simulations, and implementing new boundary conditions such as open boundaries. The project will also test the effectiveness of a novel multiscale simulation technique called, "Equation Free Projective Integration" (EFPI) which has the potential to have a transformative effect on magnetic reconnection studies, allowing extremely large scale simulations which still include important kinetic physics. The education plan that forms an important part of the project is focused on attracting and retaining students into the field of space physics. To increase student interest, there are outreach programs to high school students and undergraduates, new space physics courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, and better visibility of the University of Delaware (UDEL) space physics program through a unified web site. In order to increase student interest and retention, education and research activities are integrated by including high school, undergraduate, and graduate students in the research program. Weekly group meetings and mentor training will be used to create a "scaffolding of mentoring," whereby older students help to train and mentor younger ones. The participation of underrepresented groups will be promoted by providing the summer high school research experience to a minority student. Finally, the impact of the educational activities will be evaluated by collecting statistics on the education and career choices of students who participate in the UDEL space physics program.