Equilibrium and non-equilibrium current sheet kinetics
ABSTRACT
Current sheets are fundamental magnetized plasma structures that are important building blocks of more complex plasma phenomena. On the thermodynamic macroscale, they represent a simple balance between magnetic and thermal pressures, but when at equilibrium they are also stationary solutions of the Vlasov-Maxwell equations. In this talk, I first review equilibrium solutions of current sheets, namely the seminal Harris equilibrium solution. Then I explain the detailed dynamics of a current sheet that has formed at non-equilibria and its phase-space signatures. Comparisons to actual observations of these structures are presented, as well as extensions to other equilibrium structures such as flux ropes.
