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Abstract:

We present the largest 3D particle-in-cell shearing-box simulations of turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability, for the first time employing the realistic proton-to-electron mass ratio. We investigate the energy partition between relativistically hot electrons and subrelativistic ions in turbulent accreting plasma, a regime relevant to collisionless, radiatively inefficient accretion flows around supermassive black holes such as those targeted by the Event Horizon Telescope. We provide a simple empirical formula to describe the measured heating ratio between ions and electrons, which can be used for more accurate global modeling of accretion flows with standard fluid approaches such as general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics.

Abstract:

We present results from x-ray imaging of high-aspect-ratio magnetic reconnection experiments driven at the National Ignition Facility. Two parallel, self-magnetized, elongated laser-driven plumes are produced by tiling 40 laser beams. A magnetic reconnection layer is formed by the collision of the plumes. A gated x-ray framing pinhole camera with micro-channel plate detector produces multiple images through various filters of the formation and evolution of both the plumes and current sheet. As the diagnostic integrates plasma self-emission along the line of sight, two-dimensional electron temperature maps ⟨ T e ⟩ Y are constructed by taking the ratio of intensity of these images obtained with different filters. The plumes have a characteristic temperature ⟨ T e ⟩ Y = 240 ± 20 eV at 2 ns after the initial laser irradiation and exhibit a slow cooling up to 4 ns. The reconnection layer forms at 3 ns with a temperature ⟨ T e ⟩ Y = 280 ± 50 eV as the result of the collision of the plumes. The error bars of the plumes and current sheet temperatures separate at 4 ns, showing the heating of the current sheet from colder inflows. Using a semi-analytical model, we survey various heating mechanisms in the current sheet. We find that reconnection energy conversion would dominate at low density ( n e ≲ 7 × 10 18 cm^−3) and electron-ion collisional drag at high-density ( ≳ 10 19 cm^−3).

Abstract:

We present 3D fully kinetic shearing-box simulations of pair-plasma magnetorotational turbulence with unprecedented macro-to-microscopic scale separation. While retrieving the expected fluid behavior of the plasma at large scales, we observe a steepening of turbulent spectra at kinetic scales and substantial angular-momentum transport linked with kinetic processes. For the first time, we provide a definitive demonstration of nonthermal particle acceleration in kinetic magnetorotational turbulence agnostically of shearing-box initial conditions by means of a novel strategy exploiting synchrotron cooling.

Abstract:

Abstract Using 3D particle-in-cell simulation, we characterize energy conversion, as a function of guide magnetic field, in a thin current sheet in semirelativistic plasma, with relativistic electrons and subrelativistic protons. There, magnetic reconnection, the drift-kink instability (DKI), and the flux-rope kink instability all compete and interact in their nonlinear stages to convert magnetic energy to plasma energy. We compare fully 3D simulations with 2D in two different planes to isolate reconnection and DKI effects. In zero guide field, these processes yield distinct energy conversion signatures: ions gain more energy than electrons in 2Dxy (reconnection), while the opposite is true in 2Dyz (DKI), and the 3D result falls in between. The flux-rope instability, which occurs only in 3D, allows more magnetic energy to be released than in 2D, but the rate of energy conversion in 3D tends to be lower. Increasing the guide magnetic field strongly suppresses DKI, and in all cases slows and reduces the overall amount of energy conversion; it also favors electron energization through a process by which energy is first stored in the motional electric field of flux ropes before energizing particles. Understanding the evolution of the energy partition thus provides insight into the role of various plasma processes, and is important for modeling radiation from astrophysical sources such as accreting black holes and their jets.

Abstract:

ABSTRACT Black hole and neutron star environments often comprise collisionless plasmas immersed in strong magnetic fields and intense baths of low-frequency radiation. In such conditions, relativistic magnetic reconnection can tap the magnetic field energy, accelerating high-energy particles that rapidly cool by inverse Compton (IC) scattering the dense photon background. At the highest particle energies reached in bright gamma-ray sources, IC scattering can stray into the Klein–Nishina regime. Here, the Comptonized photons exceed pair-production threshold with the radiation background and may thus return their energy to the reconnecting plasma as fresh electron–positron pairs. To reliably characterize observable signatures of such Klein–Nishina reconnection, in this work, we present first-principles particle-in-cell simulations of pair-plasma relativistic reconnection coupled to Klein–Nishina and pair-production physics. The simulations show substantial differences between the observable signatures of Klein–Nishina reconnection and reconnection coupled only to low-energy Thomson IC cooling (without pair production). The latter regime exhibits strong harder-when-brighter behaviour; the former involves a stable spectral shape independent of overall brightness. This spectral stability is reminiscent of flat-spectrum radio quasar (FSRQ) GeV high states, furnishing evidence that Klein–Nishina radiative physics operates in FSRQs. The simulated Klein–Nishina reconnection pair yield spans from low to order-unity and follows an exponential scaling law in a single governing parameter. Pushing this parameter beyond its range studied here might give way to a copious pair-creation regime. Besides FSRQs, we discuss potential applications to accreting black hole X-ray binaries, the M87* magnetosphere, and gamma-ray binaries.