Pressure Tensor Elements Breaking the Frozen-In Law During Reconnection in Earth's Magnetotail

J Egedal; J Ng; A Le; W Daughton; B Wetherton; J Dorelli; D Gershman; A Rager

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.225101

Pressure Tensor Elements Breaking the Frozen-In Law During Reconnection in Earth's Magnetotail

Phys Rev Lett. 2019 Nov 29;123(22):225101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.225101.

Authors

J Egedal¹, J Ng², A Le³, W Daughton³, B Wetherton¹, J Dorelli⁴, D Gershman⁴, A Rager⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
² Center for Heliophysics, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 08543, USA.
³ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
⁴ Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA.

PMID: 31868399
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.225101

Abstract

Aided by fully kinetic simulations, spacecraft observations of magnetic reconnection in Earth's magnetotail are analyzed. The structure of the electron diffusion region is in quantitative agreement with the numerical model. Of special interest, the spacecraft data reveal how reconnection is mediated by off-diagonal stress in the electron pressure tensor breaking the frozen-in law of the electron fluid.