Amplification of Magnetic Field Topologies and Depletion of Electron Thermal Energy*

Magnetic reconnection by the known tearing mode in weakly collisional and collisionless plasmas involves characteristic length scales that are unrealistically small for space plasmas. This fact motivates the search for modes producing magnetic reconnection over microscopic scale distances that remain significant when referring to plasma configurations characterized by large macroscopic scale distances. Modes that, depend on the existence of a significant electron temperature gradient can have this desired property [1]. In particular, a neutral sheet configuration is considered as in the case of Ref. [2] where auroral substorms have been proposed, for the first time, to result from magnetic reconnection processes in the Earth’s magnetotail. A new kind of mode that is localized within the region where reconnection takes place is found with an exact analytical solution of the equation describing the reconnected field.