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.