Stability properties of a new anisotropic current sheet equilibrium for planetary magnetotails

Current sheets are the fundamental structures that store magnetic energy in astrophysical plasmas, such as planetary magnetospheres and solar flares. This free energy can then be explosively released by magnetic reconnection. This process has been traditionally modeled by highly idealized models such as the so-called Harris current sheet equilibrium. But recently, a new class of current sheet equilibrium has been analytically  developed, which takes into account several features of recently observed current sheets in planetary magnetotails. Those features include an embedded multi-layer structure, electron temperature anisotropy and a non-linear magnetic field profile in the (inner) electron inner layer which also includes a normal magnetic field component.
Here we present the analysis of the so-far unknown stability properties of this new current sheet equilibrium by means of fully kinetic Particle-in-Cell (PIC) numerical simulations. We used parameters appropriate for the current sheets in diverse planetary magnetotails.
Our results allow us to make more realistic predictions concerning the development of magnetic reconnection in those magnetotails compared to the standard Harris current sheet models.