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Scaling of forced magnetic reconnection in the Hall-magnetohydrodynamical Taylor problem with arbitrary guide field

Phys. Plasmas 11, 3961 (2004); doi:10.1063/1.1768956

Published 12 July 2004

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Richard Fitzpatrick
Center for Magnetic Reconnection Studies, Institute for Fusion Studies, Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
Two-dimensional, nonlinear, Hall-magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) numerical simulations are used to investigate the scaling of the rate of forced magnetic reconnection in the so-called Taylor problem. In this problem, a small amplitude boundary perturbation is suddenly applied to a tearing stable, slab plasma equilibrium. The perturbation is such as to drive magnetic reconnection within the plasma. This type of reconnection, which is not due to an intrinsic plasma instability, is generally termed "forced reconnection." Hall effects are found to greatly accelerate the rate of magnetic reconnection, relative to the well-known Sweet–Parker rate. In the nonlinear Hall-MHD regime with arbitrary guide field, the peak reconnection rate is found to be independent of the resistivity, and to scale like dpsi/dt~[beta/(1 + beta)]3/4d<sub>i</sub><sup>3/2</sup>Xi<sub>0</sub><sup>2</sup>, where beta is the plasma beta calculated using the guide field, di the collisionless ion skin depth, and Xi0 the amplitude of the boundary perturbation. ©2004 American Institute of Physics.
History: Received 12 February 2004; accepted 14 May 2004; published 12 July 2004
Permalink: http://link.aip.org/link/?PHPAEN/11/3961/1
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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords
PACS
  • 52.35.Vd
    Magnetic reconnection in plasmas
  • 52.30.Cv
    Plasma magnetohydrodynamics including electron magnetohydrodynamics
  • 52.35.Mw
    Nonlinear phenomena: plasma waves, wave propagation and other interactions including parametric effects, mode coupling, ponderomotive effects, etc
  • 52.65.Kj
    Magnetohydrodynamic and fluid equation (plasma simulation)
  • 52.35.Qz
    Plasma microinstabilities including ion-acoustic, two-stream, loss-cone, beam-plasma, drift, ion- or electron-cyclotron instabilities, etc
  • YEAR: 2004

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ISSN:
1070-664X (print)   1089-7674 (online)
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