The spreading of magnetic reconnection X‐line in particle‐in‐cell simulations–mechanism and the effect of drift‐kink instability

We study magnetic reconnection X-line spreading in a Harris current sheet using three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. We found that without drift-kink instability, the X-line spreads in ambient ion-drifting speed in the ion-drifting direction while the X-line barely spreads in the electron-drifting direction. With drift-kink instability, the X-line stops spreading after the instability grows to large amplitudes. The interaction between X-line spreading and drift-kink instability could be important in the context of Earth’s magnetotail.

February 2025 · Shan-Chang Lin, Yi-Hsin Liu, Xiaocan Li

Fast magnetic reconnection induced by resistivity gradients in 2D magnetohydrodynamics

We study magnetic reconnection using 2D resistivity magnetohydrodynamics simulations and found that fast reconnection can be achieved by a resistivity gradient in the outflow direction. We also tested how the reconnection rate increases with increasing resistivity and found that current density decreases significantly at the X-line.

July 2021 · Shan-Chang Lin, Yi-Hsin Liu, Xiaocan Li

Self-consistent construction of virialized wave dark matter halos

Using C++ and MPI, we solve the Schrödinger-Poisson equation numerically by treating the wavefunction as composed of noninteracting eigenstates and assigning their amplitudes based on a distribution function, assuming spherically symmetric. This method provides a way to construct Milky Way-sized wave dark matter halos.

May 2018 · Shan-Chang Lin, Hsi-Yu Schive, Shing-Kwong Wong, Tzihong Chiueh