THE MACRO-EM PARTICLE SIMULATION METHOD AND A STUDY OF COLLISIONLESS MAGNETIC RECONNECTION

A multi-dimensional electromagnetic particle simulation method which is suitable for studying low-frequency plasma phenomena is described in the first part. Its application to collisionless magnetic reconnection is shown in the second part. The present particle code efficiently deals with nonlinear kinetic processes wherein ions and electrons play their roles, since the code is implemented using the Maxwell equations and the Newton-Lorentz equations. The drift-kinetic equations are used optionally. A simulation of collisionless reconnection shows that the toroidal electric field which directly relates to reconnection is generated naturally in the kinetic study, and that a thin dissipation region is formed whose width is a few electron skin depths. Thus, collisionless reconnection is considered to proceed under the electron inertia.