• Accepted Paper

System size dependence of collisionless reconnection rate

Yi-Min Huang, Naoki Bessho, Li-Jen Chen, Judith T. Karpen, and Amitava Bhattacharjee

Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 30 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xpsr-4hqn

Abstract

It is a widely accepted paradigm that collisionless magnetic reconnection proceeds at a universal fast rate of ∼0.1 when normalized to a properly defined reconnecting magnetic field and Alfv'en speed, effectively independent of the macroscopic system size. This conclusion, derived primarily from kinetic simulations of classical Harris current sheets with kinetic-scale thickness, stands in contrast to results from forced reconnection and island coalescence, where the rate significantly depends on the system size. Here, we reconcile this disparity by performing a rigorous scaling study of Harris sheets using both particle-in-cell and Hall magnetohydrodynamic simulations. We demonstrate that when the global magnetic configuration is preserved by scaling the initial current sheet thickness proportionally with the system size, the "universal" fast rate disappears. Instead, the reconnection rate decreases as the system size increases. By establishing a consistent scaling trend across different magnetic configurations, these findings challenge the paradigm of scale-independent fast reconnection and necessitate a reevaluation of energy release rates in astrophysical plasmas.

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