Spreading of magnetic reconnection by electron scale dispersive waves

Abstract

We show that on electron scales a patch of the localized magnetic reconnection spreads bi-directionally in a wave like fashion when an external guide-magnetic field in the direction of the electron current is present. The spreading is caused by the propagation of the flow induced and whistler wave modes away from the localized patch. For small guide fields, the spreading is asymmetric being faster in the direction of the electron flow. On increasing the guide field, the spreading becomes increasingly symmetric due to the dominance of the whistler group speed in determining the speed of the spreading. The wave-like spreading of reconnection causes the alternate formation of X- and O-points in the reconnection planes separated by half the wavelength of the reconnection wave.