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SUMMARY:Transition to Petschek Reconnection in Subrelativistic Pair Plasma
 s: Implications for  Particle Acceleration
DTSTART:20260413T124500Z
DTEND:20260413T130000Z
DTSTAMP:20260418T160300Z
UID:indico-event-1784@indico.dfa.unipd.it
DESCRIPTION:Speakers: Yushan Chen (Università degli Studi di Padova)\nWhi
 le relativistic magnetic reconnection in pair plasmas has emerged in recen
 t years as a candidate for the origin of radiation from extreme astrophysi
 cal environments\, the corresponding subrelativistic pair-plasma regime ha
 s remained less explored\, leaving open the question of how relativistic p
 hysics affects reconnection. In this paper\, we investigate the difference
 s between these regimes by contrasting two-dimensional particle-in-cell si
 mulations of reconnection in pair plasmas with relativistic magnetization 
 (σ ≫ 1) and subrelativistic magnetization (σ < 1). By utilizing unprec
 edentedly large domain sizes and outflow boundary conditions\, we demonstr
 ate that lowering the magnetization results in a change in the reconnectio
 n geometry from a plasmoid chain to a Petschek geometry\, where laminar ex
 hausts bounded by slow-mode shocks emanate from a single diffusion region.
  We attribute this change to the reduced plasmoid production rate in the l
 ow-σ case: When the secondary tearing rate is sufficiently low\, plasmoid
 s are too few in number to prevent the system from relaxing into a stable 
 Petschek configuration. This geometric change also affects particle energi
 zation: We show that while high-σ plasmoid chains generate power-law ener
 gy spectra\, low-σ Petschek exhausts merely heat incoming plasma and yiel
 d negligible nonthermal acceleration. These results have implications for 
 predicting the global current sheet geometry and the resulting energy spec
 tra in a variety of systems.\n\nhttps://indico.dfa.unipd.it/event/1784/
LOCATION:Aula Rosino (Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - Edificio ex-Ri
 zzato)
URL:https://indico.dfa.unipd.it/event/1784/
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