Snapshot of a reconnecting current sheet at t = 534.5 s with contours denoting in-plane projection of magnetic field lines, and a colormap of the density of the mass density of charges ρ_c. The snapshot window is the same as in Fig. 3. The center x-point of the current sheet determined as the location of the maximum out-of-plane current density J_y is marked with ‘X’ in the image. The dashed red line marks a cut along and across the current sheet in the direction parallel and perpendicular to the reconnecting magnetic field lines, respectively, as marked in the figure.