Relativistic Asymmetric Magnetic Reconnection

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 128; no. 14; p. 145101
• Main Authors: Mbarek, Rostom, Haggerty, Colby, Sironi, Lorenzo, Shay, Michael, Caprioli, Damiano
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Physical Society (APS) 08-04-2022
• Subjects: ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; cosmic ray acceleration; magnetic reconnection; particle acceleration in plasmas; particle astrophysics; Physics
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.145101

We derive basic scaling equations for relativistic magnetic reconnection in the general case of asymmetric inflow conditions and obtain predictions for the outflow Lorentz factor and the reconnection rate. Kinetic particle-in-cell simulations show that the outflow speeds as well as the nonthermal spectral index are constrained by the inflowing plasma with the weaker magnetic energy per particle, in agreement with the scaling predictions. These results are significant for understanding nonthermal emission from reconnection in magnetically dominated astrophysical systems, many of which may be asymmetric in nature. The results provide a quantitative approach for including asymmetry on reconnection in the relativistic regime.