Fast reconnection in high-Lundquist-number plasmas due to the plasmoid Instability
Top Cited Papers
- 11 November 2009
- journal article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Physics of Plasmas
- Vol. 16 (11), 112102
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3264103
Abstract
Thin current sheets in systems of large size that exceed a critical value of the Lundquist number are unstable to a super-Alfvénic tearing instability, referred to hereafter as the plasmoid instability. The scaling of the growth rate of the most rapidly growing plasmoid instability with respect to the Lundquist number is shown to follow from the classical dispersion relation for tearing modes. As a result of this instability, the system realizes a nonlinear reconnection rate that appears to be weakly dependent on the Lundquist number, and larger than the Sweet–Parker rate by nearly an order of magnitude (for the range of Lundquist numbers considered). This regime of fast reconnection is realizable in a dynamic and highly unstable thin current sheet, without requiring the current sheet to be turbulent.Keywords
Other Versions
This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- Formation of Plasmoid Chains in Magnetic ReconnectionPhysical Review Letters, 2009
- Self-Feeding Turbulent Magnetic Reconnection on Macroscopic ScalesPhysical Review Letters, 2008
- Instability of current sheets and formation of plasmoid chainsPhysics of Plasmas, 2007
- Plasmoid-induced-reconnection and fractal reconnectionEarth, Planets and Space, 2001
- Three-dimensional fluid simulations of the nonlinear drift-resistive ballooning modes in tokamak edge plasmasPhysics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics, 1993
- Fast magnetic reconnection with small shock anglesJournal of Geophysical Research, 1992
- Multiple X line reconnection: 1. A criterion for the transition from a single X line to a multiple X line reconnectionJournal of Geophysical Research, 1986
- Magnetic reconnection via current sheetsPhysics of Fluids, 1986
- The Solar-Flare Phenomenon and the Theory of Reconnection and Annihiliation of Magnetic Fields.The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 1963
- The production of high energy particles in solar flaresIl Nuovo Cimento (1869-1876), 1958