Foliation and mixing of the electron drift-kinetic distribution function in nonlinear two-dimensional magnetic reconnection

Abstract

The nonlinear evolution of the two-dimensional collisionless magnetic field reconnection in a configuration with a null line and a strong perpendicular guide magnetic field is studied analytically and numerically by adopting a drift-kinetic description of the electron response. The foliation of the electron distribution function at fixed parallel canonical momentum allows us to establish a clear link between the fluid and the kinetic regimes of the collisionless reconnection instability in terms of the advection and mixing of Lagrangian invariants.