Kinetic simulations of reconnection and magnetospheric disruptions Original Research Article

Large-scale 3-D particle-in-cell simulations are used to investigate the nature of collisionless reconnection and to examine the process of braking of high speed flows in the near-Earth plasma sheet. The GEM magnetic reconnection study is generalized to the case of externally driven reconnection. The results are similar to the undriven case, and the reconnection process remains basically two-dimensional. Pressure gradient terms dominate the perpendicular current during flow braking, and the cross-tail current is enhanced in the kinetic treatment rather than being reduced as in MHD treatments.