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PRODID:UW-Madison-Physics-Events
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SEQUENCE:0
UID:UW-Physics-Event-9545
DTSTART:20260115T203000Z
DTEND:20260115T223000Z
DTSTAMP:20260405T100754Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251229T203318Z
LOCATION:B343 Sterling or https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/97437266060
SUMMARY:Kinetic impacts on Rayleigh-Taylor-driven magnetic reconnectio
 n in accretion flows\, Preliminary Exam\, Braden Buck\, Physics PhD Gr
 aduate Student
DESCRIPTION:The Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) is ubiquitous in man
 y fluid flows\, such as astrophysical plasma flows. The RTI encourages
  mixing in a medium with an unstably stratified density profile under 
 the influence of an accelerating force such as gravity. If a sheared m
 agnetic field profile is present\, the RTI can cause reconnection to o
 ccur through plasma mixing\, leading to nonthermal particle accelerati
 on for sufficiently low beta plasmas. While the kinetic effects of thi
 s phenomenon have been previously studied in two-dimensional simulatio
 ns (V. Zhdankin\, B. Ripperda\, A. A. Philippov\, 2023)\, three-dimens
 ional effects have not been explored. Here\, we directly compare two-d
 imensional and three-dimensional localized particle-in-cell kinetic si
 mulations to elucidate three-dimensional effects on RTI-driven magneti
 c reconnection in a sub-relativistic pair-plasma subjected to a sheare
 d magnetic field profile and RTI-unstable density stratification. This
  analysis is carried out for a parameter scan across magnetic shear an
 gle values. We expect that these results can provide further insights 
 into plasma physics governing reconnection as well as the near-infrare
 d and X-ray flares observed from localized regions of the accretion di
 sk surrounding Sagittarius A*.<br>\n<br>\n
URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=9545
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