Influence of asymmetries and guide fields on the magnetic reconnection diffusion region in collisionless space plasmas

Abstract

Collisionless magnetic reconnection is considered to be one of the most important plasma phenomena because it governs the transport of energy, momentum and plasma in a wide variety of situations. In particular, understanding the central diffusion region is crucial to gaining a full understanding of the physics of reconnection. Although most diffusion region studies have historically focussed on simple reconnection geometries (antiparallel fields and symmetric reconnecting plasmas), in recent years significant progress has been made in understanding the impact of plasma asymmetries, guide fields and flow shear on collisionless diffusion region physics. Here we present a review of this recent progress, which is based both on supercomputer simulations and increasingly detailed multi-point satellite measurements of collisionless magnetic reconnection in space plasmas. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.