“Magneto-Kinetic” Reconnection Beyond Fluid Descriptions*

As shown by previous contributions [1, 2], magnetic reconnection can be driven by the kinetic energy of particle populations in well confined plasmas. Therefore, processes are investigated where magnetic reconnection in collisionless regimes [3] is sustained by non-thermal distributions in phase space of the main components of a plasma column and, in particular, of the electron population. In this context the multifluid descriptions, that have been mostly relied upon [4] in order to find new directions for this area of investigations, are inadequate and the full kinetic kind of approach undertaken at first in Ref. [3] is needed. The simplest important case is that of unperturbed electron distributions with anisotropic temperature for which mode-particle resonances have a significant role in the evolution of the perturbed state. Relevant particle and thermal transport processes are considered in this context. *Sponsored in part by the Kavli Foundation (MIT) and by CNR of Italy.

[1] B. Coppi et al. Fizika Plasmi 6, 961 (1976).

[2] B. Coppi and F. Porcelli, Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 2272 (1986).

[3] B. Coppi, J. Mark, G. Bertin, and L. Sugiyama, Ann. Phys. 119, 370 (1979).

[4] B. Coppi and B. Basu, Phys. Lett. A, 397, 127265 (2021).