Particle-In-Cell simulations of magnetic reconnection in the presence of a cold shear flow

Our group has done extensive research on the fluid and kinetic effect of cold ion populations on the reconnection process, in an effort to identify factors that can lead to the onset or stopping of magnetic reconnection. Recent fully kinetic studies involving cold protons or oxygen have shown that flows of cold particles significantly modify the reconnection process, and that the nature of this modification is dependent on the configuration of these flows and the constituent ions of the flows. In this study we want to investigate how the reconnection process is affected by a shear flow of cold protons outside of the current sheet, using a 2.5D Particle-In-Cell simulation. The effect of shear flows on magnetic reconnection has investigated earlier, indicating a signifficant modification of the reconnection process. However, it is not clear how these effects will be influenced by the additional scale lengths introduced into the system by a cold ion flow. In particular we want to investigate how the current sheet and diffusion regions are altered by a cold shear flow on a kinetic level, and how the reconnection process is altered on ion scales and beyond. Preliminary results indicate that the shear flow introduces a tilt of the current sheet, which appears to be consistent with earlier studies. Results will be compared to our group’s earlier results involving symmetric and asymmetric flows of cold particles in the inflow regions, as well as existing simulations and observations of magnetic reconnection including warm shear flows.