A hybrid simulation study of magnetic reconnection in anisotropic plasmas

The process of magnetic reconnection in anisotropic plasmas is studied numerically using a 2-dimensional, 3-component hybrid simulation. The results of the calculation show that, when the plasma pressure in the direction perpendicular to magnetic field is larger than that in the parallel direction (e.g. P⊥P‖ = 1.5), instability may greatly increase, speeding up the rate of reconnection. When P⊥ is smaller than P‖, (e.g., when P⊥P‖ = 0.6), fire hose instability appears, which will restrain the tearing mode instability and the process of magnetic reconnection.