Formation of Plasmoid Chains in Magnetic Reconnection
Mar, 2009Citations per year
Abstract: (arXiv)
A detailed numerical study of magnetic reconnection in resistive MHD for very large, previously inaccessible, Lundquist numbers () is reported. Large-aspect-ratio Sweet-Parker current sheets are shown to be unstable to super-Alfv\'enically fast formation of plasmoid (magnetic-island) chains. The plasmoid number scales as and the instability growth rate in the linear stage as , in agreement with the theory by Loureiro et al. [Phys. Plasmas {\bf 14}, 100703 (2007)]. In the nonlinear regime, plasmoids continue to grow faster than they are ejected and completely disrupt the reconnection layer. These results suggest that high-Lundquist-number reconnection is inherently time-dependent and hence call for a substantial revision of the standard Sweet-Parker quasi-stationary picture for .References(29)
Figures(11)
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