Energy Conversion by Magnetic Reconnection in Multiple Ion Temperature Plasmas

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection is a process that converts magnetic energy into kinetic energy, both bulk and thermal. We study the energy partition in magnetotail reconnection in the presence of cold ion populations of ionospheric origin using kinetic simulations. We compare two simulations with one or two ion populations, but same ion moments. The ion distribution in the simulation with cold ions therefore corresponds to a non-Maxwellian distribution with a large tail. The global energy budget does not change in the two cases, but when focusing on sub-populations, the hot ion population (i.e., the tail of the velocity distribution function) gains more energy than the cold ion population (i.e., the core of the distribution). Hot and cold ions also gain different percentages of bulk and thermal energy.