Investigating the Onset and Suppression of Reconnection in Plasma Environments: Insights from MMS Observations

Authors: P. S. Pyakurel (UC - Berkeley), T. D. Phan (UC - Berkeley), M. Oeiroset (UC - Berkeley), M. Oka (UC - Berkeley)

The study of the onset and suppression of reconnection in different plasma environments is still not completely understood. While previous observational studies of the solar wind at around 1 AU have reported that the onset of reconnection may depend on a combination of the difference in the β on the two sides of the current sheet and the magnetic shear angle, θ, across the current sheet, whether the same physics applies to minute-scale reconnection processes, such as electron-only reconnection, is not yet known. Here, we report initial findings from MMS reconnection events showing some fundamental differences in the onset of reconnection at electron-scale current sheets versus large-scale reconnection processes with full ion coupling (standard reconnection) in large-scale current sheets. Since turbulence cascades generate a wide range of current sheet length scales, this study has direct implications for the role that reconnection plays in intense current sheets at different length scales.