Fast collisionless reconnection in the whistler frequency range

The onset of spontaneous magnetic reconnection in a collisionless plasma in the whistler frequency range is investigated from the analytical and from the numerical point of view in a two dimensional slab geometry. This is intended as a first step in the direction of simulating the nonlinear phase of kinetic reconnection using a single species Vlasov code. The evolution of the magnetic field lines is described in the framework of electron magnetohydrodynamics (EMHD). The linear growth rate, previously studied in the so-called constant-psi approximation is determined for all values of the wavevector k. In the small k limit the (stabilizing) effect of the frequency term in the external region is included. The scaling laws of the growth rate with respect to the inertial skin depth are obtained and compared with those of standard inertial magnetohydrodynamic theory. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-664X(00)00706-0]