Structures of diffusion regions in collisionless magnetic reconnection

Detailed structures of diffusion regions in two-dimensional collisionless magnetic reconnection are studied by using an electromagnetic Vlasov simulation. It has been well known that plasma number density decreases near the X-point of the reconnection. However, numerical thermal fluctuations exist in particle-in-cell simulations, and there is a possibility that detailed structures near the X-point diffuse numerically when the number of particles per cell is not enough. In the present study, a high-resolution two-dimensional Vlasov simulation is performed. It is found that electron number density in the electron diffusion region decreases to a hundredth of the initial value. Structures of electron diffusion region are determined by the local electron inertial length.