Date of Award

Fall 2025

Project Type

Dissertation

Program or Major

Physics

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

First Advisor

Kevin J Genestreti

Second Advisor

Roy B Torbert

Third Advisor

James L Burch

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process in magnetized plasmas where stored magnetic energy is converted to heat and kinetic energy. The objective of this thesis is to examine the role of small-scale structure of the reconnection region and the background plasma conditions on the rate that reconnection converts and dissipates magnetic energy. This is done using in situ data from NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of reconnection for different regimes. First, we introduce a new technique for measuring the reconnection rate and demonstrate its accuracy for the simplest regime of reconnection. Next, we show that it can be applied to more complex regimes of reconnection and perform a multi-event study to test the dependence of current sheet structure and reconnection rate on background plasma conditions. Third, we investigate the effects of a guide field on plasma flow dynamics and energy dissipation. The results suggest that the normalized reconnection depends weakly on guide field, but is otherwise constant throughout the terrestrial magnetosphere, and that a guide field can generate turbulent vortices near the X-line of reconnection, but doesn’t change the overall rate of dissipation.

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