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Magnetic Null Points in Kinetic Simulations of Space Plasmas by Olshevsky, Vyacheslav; Deca, Jan; Divin, Andrey; Peng, Ivy Bo; Markidis, Stefano; Innocenti, Maria Elena; Cazzola, Emanuele; Lapenta, Giovanni is a scholarly article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Magnetic Null Points in Kinetic Simulations of Space Plasmas about?

We present a systematic attempt to study magnetic null points and the associated magnetic energy conversion in kinetic Particle-in-Cell simulations of various plasma configurations. We address three-dimensional simulations performed with the semi-implicit kinetic electromagnetic code iPic3D in different setups: variations of a Harris current sheet, dipolar and quadrupolar magnetospheres interacting with the solar wind; and a relaxing turbulent configuration with multiple null points. Spiral nulls are more likely created in space plasmas: in all our simulations except lunar magnetic anomaly and quadrupolar mini-magnetosphere the number of spiral nulls prevails over the number of radial nulls by a factor of 3-9. We show that often magnetic nulls do not indicate the regions of intensive energy dissipation. Energy dissipation events caused by topological bifurcations at radial nulls are rather rare and short-lived. The so-called X-lines formed by the radial nulls in the Harris current sheet and lunar magnetic anomaly simulations are rather stable and do not exhibit any energy dissipation. Energy dissipation is more powerful in the vicinity of spiral nulls enclosed by magnetic flux rope

Author

Olshevsky, Vyacheslav; Deca, Jan; Divin, Andrey; Peng, Ivy Bo; Markidis, Stefano; Innocenti, Maria Elena; Cazzola, Emanuele; Lapenta, Giovanni

Published

2015

Language

EN