Electron-only reconnection in 3D plasma turbulence in the low electron beta regime*

A new regime of kinetic-scale plasma turbulence, consisting of inertial kinetic Alfven modes, has been shown to exist in plasma environments with low electron beta (Earth magnetosheath, regions close to the solar corona, etc) [1]. In this work we use spectral code SPS to run a 3D simulation of decaying turbulence in such a plasma environment. We look for indicators of electron-only reconnection, previously found by the MMS mission [2], and identify and characterize a few reconnection sites, expanding on our previous study of 2.5D kinetic-scale turbulence [3|.

 

[1] - Roytershteyn, V., Boldyrev, S., Delzanno, G. L., Chen, C. H. K., Groselj, D., Loureiro, N. F., 2019, ApJ, 870, 103.

[2] - Phan, T. D., Eastwood, J. P., Shay, M. A., et al. 2018, Nature, 557, 202.

[3] - Vega, C.,  Roytershteyn , V., Delzanno, G. L., Boldyrev, S., 2020 ApJL 893 L10.