Kinetic regimes of high frequency magnetic reconnection in a neutral sheet configuration

A collisionless plasma configuration with a neutral magnetic sheet allows a fast electron tearing mode to grow due to a resonant wave-particle interaction near the null line. Using a fully kinetic treatment, a set of dispersion equations that bridges the resonant tearing mode and the well-known cold fluid tearing mode driven by electron inertia is derived. The whistler frequency range where magnetic reconnection does not involve the ion dynamics is considered. This frequency range is of interest to the study of the laser-plasma interaction, where magnetic reconnection is expected to play an important role in the magnetic field dynamics in the wake of an ultra intense laser pulse. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.