Role of the Biermann effect in 3-D magnetic reconnection in laser-driven experiments and space plasmas

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process throughout plasma physics that allows for the rapid conversion of magnetic energy into kinetic energy and particle flows. While a major challenge in studying reconnection has been bridging the gap between small-scale experiments and large astrophysical phenomena (such as the ejection of solar flares or turbulent reconnection in the heliosheath), high energy density (HED) plasma experiments driven by long pulse lasers have demonstrated magnetic reconnection between colliding plasma plumes, recently achieving reconnection current sheets significantly larger than previous experiments (as normalized by the ion skin depth). In this talk, we present results from newly developed fully kinetic 3-D simulations which are able to directly compare to such HED experiments, and in turn give insight to reconnection dynamics in larger astrophysical reconnection scenarios. In particular, we have observed a novel, inherently 3-D reconnection mechanism where the Biermann battery effect plays a direct role in reconnection process, and find that this mechanism can play a non-trivial role in turbulent magnetosheath among other space plasma scenarios. Our simulations shed light on significant differences in 2-D versus 3-D reconnection, including how density and temperature gradients near the reconnection layer can influence the rate of magnetic reconnection.