Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5232-0749

Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Committee Chair

Earl Scime

Committee Co-Chair

Paul Cassak

Committee Member

Paul Cassak

Committee Member

Katherine Goodrich

Committee Member

Piyush Mehta

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection converts the magnetic energy available in a plasma to the kinetic energy of its constituent particles. In the simplest case, it occurs between anti-parallel magnetic field lines meeting in a plane. Another variant known as ‘component reconnection’ involves field lines reconnecting at an angle, giving a non-zero magnetic field component perpendicular to the plane of reconnection. This component is known as the ‘guide field’ and it is normalized to the reconnecting field in the literature. The guide field controls the particle-scale dynamics of reconnection and influences the ensuing particle acceleration.

Component reconnection occurs in the Earth’s magnetosphere, along with a variant known as ‘electron-only’ reconnection which precludes ion dynamics. West Virginia University’s PHAse Space MApping (PHASMA) experiment can generate electron-only reconnection with a variable guide field. We have used this platform to study electron acceleration along the local magnetic field as a function of the guide field and found that electron acceleration is enhanced as the guide field is decreased. This occurs with the formation of non-thermal electron energy distribution functions (EEDFs) whose peak energies increase as the guide field decreases. A cross-over occurs at a guide field of 10, when the spatio-temporal production of energetic electrons in PHASMA increases dramatically. Measurements for this case reveal the production of a non-thermal, multi-component EEDF in conjunction with bulk electron heating along the local magnetic field.

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