Modeling experimental reconnection with multidimensional kinetic simulations

The Terrestrial Reconnection EXperiment (TREX) as the Wisconsin Plasma Physics Laboratory (WiPPL) creates and measures different reconnection geometries in collisionless plasmas, with the aim of understanding the reconnection mechanisms of low-density space environments. Work on TREX is supplemented by kinetic simulations using VPIC, a particle-in-cell code developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. VPIC simulations of TREX work in tandem with laboratory experiments, such that each provide feedback that shapes the designs and objectives of the other. So far, TREX data and simulations have shown agreements in layer width [1] and magnetic geometries; further work to match experimental and simulated reconnection rates and verify the occurrence of the Lower Hybrid Drift Instability are ongoing.



[1] Greess et al. JGR Space Physics (2021) 126, e2021JA029316.